This is in response to the news titled “Rizal yet to get travel documents” dated March 17. It is unfortunate that Tek Nath Rizal, known as the father of the Bhutanese democracy movement, could not go to Geneva to attend the UN Commission for Human Rights meeting as the Nepal government could not provide him with necessary travel documents. He and two other Bhutanese human rights activists were invited by Lutheran World Federation. Nepal has not granted him political asylum till date for which he had applied in October last year. It sounds mysterious why Nepal deliberately fails to do so if it sincerely wants to solve the long protracted crisis. Granting Rizal the refugee status and travel document would not add any extra burden for Nepal, rather it would unleash Nepal from the burden of raising their concerns in the international arena. Who else could present the concerns and problems of the refugees better than Rizal?
