Visiting US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Wendy R Sherman today encouraged Nepal to provide basic facilities to Tibetan refugees, including their right to identity card, job and the rights of their children to go to school and get care.

The senior diplomat said this at a press conference organised by the US Embassy in Kathmandu this morning. She also urged Nepal to provide ‘safe transit’ to refugees on their way to Dharamshala, India. Earlier, she had raised this issue during her meetings with PM Baburam Bhattarai and representatives of the Tibetan community.

Sherman had also urged the PM to ensure the rights of LGBTs in the new constitution and expressed concern about the issue of Bhutanese refugees. In reply, PM Bhattarai said the new statute will be inclusive, incorporating the voices of all aspects of Nepali society, including of the third genders’. He also said the government has been treating Tibetan refugees as per international human rights and refugee laws and practices.

During the meeting, the PM told her that the peace process is going to conclude by mid-April and hoped, then, Nepal will catch the pace of development. The PM also urged the US diplomat for US investment in Nepal.

Emerging from the meeting, Sherman commented that her meeting with Nepal’s Prime Minister was positive and also expressed confidence that the ongoing peace process and constitution-drafting would get final shape. “Nepal’s future lies only in democracy,” she said.

During her brief stay in Nepal, she also called on UCPN-Maoist Chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Chief of Army Staff Chhatra Man Singh Gurung. She said those meetings were solely focused on concluding the peace process. She had arrived in Nepal via India yesterday and left Nepal for Bangladesh today.

published on: 6 March 2012 | The Himalayan Times