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Nepal: clashes between refugees and locals leave one refugee dead, eight wounded

Briefing Notes, 23 February 2007

This is a summary of what was said by UNHCR spokesperson Ron Redmond to whom quoted text may be attributed at the press briefing, on 23 February 2007, at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.

In eastern Nepal last night, clashes between refugees and locals outside Sanischare camp in Morang district, left one refugee dead and eight wounded five seriously. According to police and camp officials, the fighting broke out after some refugees were intercepted by locals in the surrounding forest and then escalated. Disputes between locals and refugees over gathering firewood in the forest are not uncommon. We are very concerned that a refugee has been killed and others wounded and are seeking further details on what sparked this incident. We hope this situation will be resolved with understanding on all sides.

There are some 106,000 refugees from Bhutan who have been living in seven camps in eastern Nepal since the early 1990s. Frustration has been growing amongst the refugees as they have seen no solution to their situation over the last 16 years. A substantial offer of resettlement places by the US, as well as other countries was made last year but has yet to take place.

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A new life for refugees from Bhutan

They fled to Nepal from Bhutan amid ethnic tensions in the early 1990s. Now, many of the slightly more than 100,000 refugees have been offered the possibility of resettlement to another country.