Nov 6, 2009

Blasts and Earthquake Vulnerabilities tothe Fore

            Two Royal Bhutan Army (RBA) soldierswere injured in an improvised explosive device strike in Gaden village, Umling,Sarpang early morning on 12 October. The bunker on the border was a borderobservation post manned during day. The attackers took away two weapons of thesoldiers. “The attack is suspected to be carried outby Maoist militants from the camps in Nepal,” said the RBA spokesperson. The RBA claimed thatNirpa Raj Rai and Bhim Raj Subedi, two militants from the Beldangi camp in Jhapa,Nepal, were involved inthe blast, assisted by Rajeev Boro, a National Democratic Front of Bodoland(NDFB) militant from Rangijhora village under Bogaigaon district in Assam.

            The Sarpang blast has been traced toa nexus between the Communist Party of Bhutan supported groups based in theBhupalese refugees and the NDFB, a Bodo militant group of Assam.It is obvious that the NDFB has made common cause with the refugees andexploited the same to establish presence in Bhutaneven as it is expanding its base in Assamin India.Terrorist groups generally exploit such grievances to advantage to expand theirinfluence.

Theplight of the refugees has now been highlighted though 22,000 living in easternNepal have been resettled in the United States and other seven westerncountries in past one and half years according to United Nations HighCommission for Refugee. The 21,920 refugees from seven camps in Morang andJhapa districts were resettled with, 19,076 in the UnitedStates, 937 in Australia,876 in Canada,310 in Norway,305 in Denmark,294 in New Zealandand 122 in the Netherlands.Approximately 107,000 Bhutanese refugees have been living in seven camps ineastern Nepalfor 18 years.

Bhutanwent through a series of earthquakes which caused destruction to a large numberof houses and other property. A view of the damaged houses and other structuresindicates that there is no focus on risk reduction and there is damage due tofailing structures. Bhutanfaces a major vulnerability of disasters as the terrain in the country isparticularly dangerous causing large number of casualties. Thus the mountainousarea with large number of downstream rivers from the Tibetan plateau is highlyvulnerable from earthquakes and flash floods. Lack of adequate mitigation measuresand poverty means that the people are vulnerable to collapsing houses and infrastructure. Unless mitigation improves the country will remain vulnerable todisasters as Bhutanis climate and economically stressed. Thus the government would have to focuson providing adequate stress on risk aversion and mitigation measures ratherthan increasing the resources for relief and rehabilitation. This is thegeneral disaster management concept in South Asia whererisk aversion and mitigation is not given adequate importance and civilauthorities not empowered to take action against those staying in dangerousstructures.