In 1988, the Royal Government of Bhutan implemented their “One People One Nation” policy, favoring the King’s ethnic culture and identity. It led to blatant violation of cultural rights and identities of other ethnic and linguistic groups in Bhutan. In time, the execution of this policy, especially the dress code, hardened up — adversely impacting the lives of ordinary Bhutanese citizens. Under the dress code, all Bhutanese were required to wear the King’s ethnic costumes at all times; ‘Gho’ for male and ‘Kera’ for female.

On 7 August 1989, Mrs. Nainakala Ghaley, wife of Damber Bahadur Ghaley, began to develop labour pains while at home in Lungkhar village in Lalai. Damber Bahadur and seven other relatives and friends carried Nainakala in a homemade stretcher, ferrying her across the river in a boat. They then carried her to hospital in Gelephug, which is one and half hour’s walk from their village. By the time they reached hospital, Nainakala’s labour pains were intense. However, due to the new dress code, the doctor did not admit Nainakala because she was not wearing a ‘Kera’. The doctor told them that Nainakala will not be admitted until she fulfilled the dress code requirement. Despite the escalating medical emergency and repeated pleas, the doctor was adamant. Damber then came rushing to my shop in Gelephug town, explained his situation and pleaded for help. As a relative, I immediately bought a ‘Kera’ for his wife and then Damber hurried back to hospital. After the dress code requirement was met, Nainakala was finally admitted to hospital, avoiding a possible tragedy. That day Nainakala gave birth to a baby boy who was later named Purna Bahadur Ghaley. Purna now lives in Ohio in USA after his third country settlement.

Against the backdrop of a worsening human rights situation, the People’s Forum for Human Rights in Bhutan (PFHRB) was launched in July 1989. As the PFHRB’s campaign for the restoration of fundamental human rights in Bhutan widened, people inside the country gradually came to know its existence. So I, along with Harka Bahadur Sapkota and Nanda Lal Katwal, went to meet PFHRB exiled leaders living in Birtamode, Nepal. After meeting them, I came back and continued running my business as usual in Gelephu. I had brought with me a few copies of booklets published by PFHRB entitled “BHUTAN: We Want Justice” to share with my close friends. Things were normal for a couple of months. But in October 1989, the Royal Government of Bhutan began arresting scores of teachers and students from various schools and colleges alleging their involvement in the human rights movement.

Around 8 pm on 10 November 1989, the Royal Bhutan Police officer Rinzin came to my shop and had a long chat with me. Although officer Rinzin spoke to me on different topics that night, he had specifically come to find out if I knew a person called Mr. Hem Raj Ghaley. I told him that I did not know that person. After officer Rinzin left my shop I felt a deep sense of unease, given the arrests taking place in several educational institutions. I couldn’t sleep well that night.

On 11 November 1989 at 10am, I went to my home in Lungkhar village in Lalai, leaving my wife and children in Gelephu. I stayed there for two days. On 13 November 1989, I came back to Gelephu. My wife said that police had come to my shop looking for me on 12th of November. She told the police that I had gone to visit my house and farm in the village. Fearing possible arrest, I stayed in Gelephu the whole day discussing with my wife options for my safety. I decided to flee to avoid arrest and left Gelephu at 9pm for the bordering Indian town Daadhgari in Assam. I stayed in a friend’s place for the night. On 14 November 1989, I avoided being seen and walked alone for 10km in the jungle. I reached Deosure in Assam. I met with Nanda Lal Katwal and Harka Bahadur Sapkota, who had both fled from Gelephu and were hiding in Nanda Lal’s relative’s place in Deosure. I stayed with them in Deosure for the night.

On 15 November 1989, I left for Nepal to meet exiled leaders. I stayed in Siliguri in West Bengal, India for one night and left for Birtamod, Nepal next morning. When I reached Kakarivitta, a town bordering Nepal, I met an acquaintance Mr. Sherpa, who informed me of the arrest of Tek Nath Rizal, Jogen Gazmere and Sushil Pokhrel by Nepal police and their possible extradition to Bhutan. He passed on a message from Mrs. Kaushila Rizal, discouraging Bhutanese from visiting their residence in Birtamod. I immediately returned to Assam and stayed two days in Bagaigoan. When I reached Deosure, I learnt about numbers of activists including DP Karki, Ganga Ram Lamitare, Hiru Poudel, YN Chaulagai and Hari Bangaley being arrested while in Bhutan.

My own arrest in Assam by the Royal Bhutan Police loomed. Harka Bahadur and I decided to head from Assam to the neighboring north Indian state of Meghalaya. We reached Mukhep in Jayantia Hills, Meghalaya. After some effort, I found a temporary job as ticket clerk to support myself. But then Harka Bahadur caught malaria and fell seriously ill. He urged me to take him to Bagaigoan and call his relatives for help. I did as requested and handed him over to his relatives. But when I came back to Mukhep, my job had been taken. I left for Garo Hills in Meghalaya, seeking another job. Eventually, I found one in the coal sector and worked there for a while.

After 22 days, when I came back to Deosure, I met Nanda Lal Katwal. He informed me that a large number of fleeing Bhutanese had taken shelter in Garganda in West Bengal, India. Together with Nanda Lal Katwal and Harka Bahadur Sapkota, I went to Garganda and met Gopal Ghimere, acting chairperson of the Peoples’ Forum for Human Rights in Bhutan. We also met other youth leaders like DK Rai, RP Subba, Indra Pathak, Kishore Rai, etc. We were told of their preparation to appeal to the King of Bhutan to restore human rights. They discussed the task of collecting data from Bhutanese fleeing Sarbhang, Chirang and Dagana districts and living in exile in Assam and other north eastern Indian states. We agreed we’d undertake the task, went back to Assam and began collecting data while monitoring the situation in three districts, and updating leaders in Garganda. Later we were informed of PFHRB sending repeated appeals to the King of Bhutan, which were all ignored.

On 2 June 1990, the Bhutan Peoples Party was launched in Garganda under the leadership of RK Budathoki, to campaign for democracy. Mr. Budathoki came to Assam and held several meetings with exiled Bhutanese. I accompanied Mr. Budathoki during his visit to Assam. Mr. Budathoki gave a press conference in Guwahati and met with several state level leaders. After he left, I continued working underground in Assam. Back in the country, the Royal Bhutan Police, constantly looking out for me, happened to arrest JB Ghaley by mistake and took him to Thimphu. After two days detention and interrogation he was set free and allowed to go home. In Samdrupdzonkhar, my elder brother was arrested and taken to Thimphu to question him about my whereabouts. When he couldn’t help, he was set free next day.

On 10 August 1990, Harka Bahadur Sapkota was arrested in Dadghari and taken to Bhutan. Fearing further arrests, other people started fleeing from Bhutan. A rally demanding democracy was launched on 19 September 1990 covering all Southern Bhutan. After our democracy movement launch, the King imposed martial law. There were large mass raids, arrests, detention, rape and torture, triggering a new wave of exodus into India. When several thousand Bhutanese ended up in Assam, we decided to meet with the governor of Assam, to seek support and assistance. Eventually, local political leaders assured us to help meet with Shri Loknath Mishra, the Governor of Assam, in Bijni in Bogaigoan.

On 25 January 1991, I went to discuss this meeting with friends staying in Dadghari. On 26 January 1991, as Ram Chandra Sikdel, Harka Bahadur Ghaley, Kharka Man Bhattarai and I were heading for the meeting, our vehicle broke down. The police force led by Captain Tandin and Captain Ugey Sonam swooped and arrested the four of us. We were taken to the National Institute of Family Planning (NIFP) in Gelephu town, converted into an army barrack/detention/torture centre. Because of limited space at NIFP, we were taken to Lodrai Central Jail, 7km away from Gelephu.

At Lodrai Jail, Captain Tandin and Captain Ugey immediately stripped me and began beating me ruthlessly with a wooden baton. Next, they started to beat the soles of my feet. At first, I screamed in agony. Due to nonstop beating, I began losing the sense of touch. My entire body swelled up and nerves began to numb. Slowly, I lost my sense of place and time. Eventually, I became unconscious. Late at night, regaining consciousness, I found myself on the cold concrete floor of a prison cell with blood covering my face and other parts of my body.

Two days later, Captain Tandin brought in an army Major who interrogated me and punched my face and chest, kicking my abdomen with his knees. During interrogation, the army Major asked me to reveal details of leadership and activities of the Bhutanese democracy movement. For four days, I was badly tortured and a statement was taken each time. Then I was shackled and handcuffed. My hands were locked behind me all the time. For two weeks I was subjected to constant torture by police and army personnel, mostly at night.

A fortnight later, Dzongda (chief district officer) Phup Dorji visited me in my prison cell. He ordered my handcuffs be removed and asked the police to go away. He spoke to me in private for an hour. He said, “Tomorrow, I am meeting the King. What do you think I should tell him will resolve the problem?” I emphasized the need to remove bans on the Bhutanese-Nepalese culture, to withdraw from implementing the Green Belt along southern Bhutan bordering India, promote national harmony, stop the rape and arson by the army in our villages, stop the torture of prisoners, release Mr. Tek Nath Rizal and all other political prisoners and conduct a population census in southern Bhutan in “a just and fair manner”. After Dzongda left the prison, I was handcuffed again and continued to be kept in solitary confinement. Almost every night, some officers came into my cell and continued torturing me.

On the 23rd day of my imprisonment, I was allowed to wash my face. My eyes, skull, forehead, jaw-bones and cheeks were all bruised and swollen. My vision had been badly damaged. Shortly afterwards, police Major Kipchu Namgyal, [now retired Chief of Police in Bhutan] came to Lodrai Jail. He started interrogating and torturing me. He asked similar questions that officers were asking me before. I repeated the same answers that I had given to other officers. He was infuriated and yelled at me saying, “I don’t want to hear your Mahabharat [referring sarcastically to the revered Hindu religious epic]”. He threatened me saying, “Answer what I ask!”

As his interrogation advanced, I was made to sit on the floor with my back on the wall. A long log of wood was slipped below my calves. Another log was kept atop my shin. Major Kipchu stood on one end of the log and another policeman was made to stand on the other end to crush my bones. Another policeman took a wooden baton and started hitting my soles. Later, Major Kipchu asked questions, while three policemen kept on crushing my shin and hitting my soles. Major Kipchu forced me to tell him the names of people passing the information from inside Bhutan to democratic activists and workers living in exile in India. It was mostly Major Kipchu who beat me during interrogation. After a while, the log beneath my legs was removed. But they continued rolling the log, up and down, kept atop my shin and pressing very hard each time. In pain and frustration, I would retort, “Instead of treating me like this, why don’t you kill me?” He would grin very sarcastically and say, “If I killed you, the King will thank me. He will never ask what happened to you. And no one will question either.”

Still later, they clamped my thighs with two long wooden poles. After tying the two ends of the poles, the policemen stood atop two ends and began jumping. The pain was excruciating and I felt that my thighs were flattening out. Blood began draining out from my legs and spread across the concrete. I wailed. I yelled. I begged them to shoot and kill me instead of inflicting such pain. Nobody listened to my plea. They continued with interrogation and torture until I became unconscious. After I regained my consciousness, I found the wooden poles untied, but still lying close to my legs. The police officers then asked me to get up and go to my cell. When they found that I could hardly move my legs, they dragged me into my cell. Later, my friends said that I had been beaten continuously for eleven hours.

For almost three days, I was left in my prison cell writhing in pain. On the fourth day, a doctor was called in to see me. When he asked, “What happened to you?” I told him that Major Kipchu tortured me. Due to the ongoing torture, I could not move my body. I could not even move my jaws properly and my teeth were aching severely. I couldn’t eat the food provided by the prison guards. There was a Dimpon, a junior police officer, whom I knew from my days working in the Forest Department. He came to my rescue showing genuine sympathy. He ordered his constables to make roti (flat bread). I could eat only one piece. He sent one person to massage my body.

Since my arrest on 26 January 1991, I was kept incommunicado. My family was not informed about my arrest and detention. Instead, the Police went to my house and harassed my family, asking my wife about my whereabouts – while I was being detained by them in Lodrai jail. She was beaten by the police on several occasions. Once she was struck by a police officer with the butt of his rifle.

In December 1991, I was transferred to NIFP in Gelephu. Around 20-25 inmates were kept in each of the 6 different blocks. For the past eleven months, I had been continuously handcuffed at the back. It was a big relief when they handcuffed me in front after being transferred to NIFP. Even at NIFP the beatings continued. One month later in January 1992, Kipchu came to NIFP and said that other leaders of the movement have been arrested and asked me to provide a fresh statement saying that I had not provided the correct statement before. I was then taken to Gelephu Police station for the taking of my statement. I signed to the fact that whatever I had confessed initially while being detained in Lodrai Central Jail was true. When I saw Major Kipchu in the police station, I was scared and worried that he might start to interrogate and torture again. Luckily, I was spared that day and send back to NIFP. A few days later, 40 other prisoners and I were transferred from NIFP to Lodrai Central jail.

On 5th April 1992, twenty-eight of us were transferred to Chemgang prison, near Thimphu in two DCM-Toyota, escorted by eight police personnel. After being placed in the vehicle, we were handcuffed together in a group making a human chain. At 7am we left Lodrai jail and reached Chemgang at around 7 pm. Following the tradition of the prison, we were all beaten severely by the policemen (prison guards) at the prison gate, before entering the prison complex. A few days earlier, a large number of prisoners had been released from Chemgang prison due to a lack of evidence. We were taken there to replace them and to construct three new prisons.

I had a very harsh and routine life in Chemgang prison. I was made to do hard labour, my handcuff was removed, but the heavy shackles on my legs were still left intact. We had to get up early in the morning and do a round of prayer in Dzongkha. After that we were given raw wheat flour with warm water for breakfast. During the day we were made to do hard labour, where 300 prisoners were herded around by 50 police personnel. If any inmate ever slowed down while working, even out of fatigue, the police guard would start to charge with sticks, or begin punching. They would yell at us and say – “You need to work like lightning.” We had to carry stones, size them into a given measurement, make pebbles and make concrete. The seven of us with heavy shackles on our feet were assigned to make concrete out of the pebbles and cement. The rest of the inmates had chains fixed to their feet and were required to move around for work. Each day we moved 80 sacks of cement and mixed them with sand and pebbles to make 800 bags of concrete. With heavy shackles on our legs, we struggled and toiled the whole day. Frequently, the police would order prisoners to run up the hill. When we couldn’t run well due to shackles and chains on our legs, police guards would start kicking randomly.

Tandin Wangdi came in as new supervisor of Chemgang prison and beatings resumed. During day-time we had to do ten hours of hard labour. At midnight policemen would come in the cell and beat us regularly. The food was horrible. Criminals were kept as prison cooks. We never got to eat vegetables. When the criminal inmates distributed food, they would give thin soup with few pieces of radish from the top of the container to the political prisoners, while they served thick soup and potatoes to their fellow criminal prisoners.

In six months, we completed the first prison house with the assistance of Bengali carpenters from India. The dimensions of the prison building were 110 feet long and 30 feet wide with a very high ceiling. We partitioned it into 16 rooms on the sides and a central corridor with an entrance gate. The next day, 91 of us were transferred to the new prison. Then we continued our work to build the next prison.

Many died in Chemgang prison. Scores of prison inmates disappeared in August 1992, people like Madhu Lal Budathoki, Man Bahadur Bhujel, Lal Bahadur Ghaley, Man Bahadur Rai and Kinley Penjor. Other activists such as Harka Bahadur Sapkota and Bom Bahadur Tiwari, arrested a long time ago, also disappeared. For a long time, we believed that they went to refugee camps in Nepal to reunite with their families. But they were never seen again. In 1992, the old set of prison guards was sent away and was replaced by a new team. We were also provided with blankets. On 12 January 1993, they removed our shackles and chains. From 17 January 1993 they stopped sending us to work. By then we had completed the construction of the second prison with 30 rooms and the remaining political prisoners were moved into it.

On 20 January 1993, members of the International Committee of Red Cross visited us in Chemgang for the first time. I became registered with ICRC with Reg. No. ICRC N BTN-000107-01. After ICRC’s visit, prison conditions improved a little. However, beatings resumed and we were again made to do hard labour. On one occasion, the ICRC members visited the prison and went away. Immediately, they returned to the prison and asked us to talk to them freely. Some inmates gathered courage and registered complaints of continuing ill-treatment and torture and also talked about the inmates disappearance from the prison.

During follow up visits, ICRC informed us that they had spoken to the King about the cases of disappearance and said that those inmates were kept in an army prison under Martial law. However, the ICRC said that it was not allowed to meet those inmates. Our complaints to ICRC had some impact. Prison officials were reprimanded. Nonetheless, after ICRC left, the chief of police Tandin Dorji came around and scolded us saying, “Is the Red Cross your father that you need to complain to them?” Nevertheless, with the visit of ICRC from time to time, medicine became accessible and medical treatment improved. It was also through ICRC that I came to learn about my father’s death after 45days. We also lodged similar concerns in writing about the cases of disappearance to the visiting members of UN Arbitrary Detention.

On 26th December 1994, after 3 years and 11months of incarceration, I was taken to Police Headquarters in Dadimakha in Thimphu and was informed by Major Kipchu of my impending release. Each inmate, released on 26 December, was given Nu.500 and warned by Major Kipchu to stay away from politics or be prepared to face severe consequences on re-arrest. We were then put in a police DCM-Toyota and taken to our home district Sarbhang. We were kept for one night in Sarbhang police station. Next day we were taken to Gelephu and handed over to Mandal, the village headman. My wife and children had already fled from the village, landing in the UN refugee camp in Nepal, due to continuous harassment and increasing fear of rape and torture by the Royal Bhutan Army.

Due to the campaign of forcible eviction by the government, like most other villages my village too was completely deserted. Hoping that situation might improve in the country, I stayed put in Bhutan. So instead of immediately joining my family in the refugee camp, I went to Samdrupdzonkhar in eastern Bhutan and stayed with my elder brother. I worked as an assistant to my elder brother who was running a pharmacy.

Meanwhile, Bhutanese languishing in UN refugee camps in Nepal launched a Peace March to Bhutan under the banner of Appeal Movement Coordinating Council (AMCC), seeking voluntary repatriation. I was hopeful for some resolution to come through this initiative. The AMCC campaign continued for several months. Peace marchers started entering into Bhutan via India, batch by batch. However, the Bhutan government launched a campaign of repression and brutally crushed the AMCC movement. As I had tacitly supported the AMCC movement, I came under the government’s radar. Fearing re-arrest, I fled from Bhutan in 1997 and joined my family in the refugee camp. I suffered a lot from the after-effects of torture which I was subjected to while in Lodrai and Chamgang prisons. I spend a harsh and horrible life in the refugee camp, in acutely impoverished conditions.

In 2006, I applied for resettlement to Australia under the Third Country Resettlement program. On 9 May 2009, my family and I arrived in Adelaide in South Australia. I have already undergone two surgeries to address health problems caused by torture in prison. I have multiple other ailments as an after-effect of torture.

After being stateless for decades, I am now happy to be finally a citizen of Australia. I am very safe and secure in Australia. I wish and pray that the life of my fellow Bhutanese inside Bhutan becomes better each day and that the democracy that we fought so hard to establish will eventually work for their interest and benefit.

Rup Kumar Ghaley
Age: 68 yrs Old
Residence in Bhutan: Lungkhar, Lalai, Sarbhang, Bhutan, House No: LK 11, Thram No: 85
Exile: Hut No. 81, Sector A3, Beldangi III, Jhapa, Nepal
Permanent Residence: Adelaide, South Australia
Story Compiled by: Jogen Gazmere
Photo Courtesy: Chak Man Bista
Publication Date: 3 June 2017