The alleged inhumane conditions imposed on political prisoners by Bhutan’s prison system, including inadequate ration supplies and poor healthcare facilities, have been condemned by a global rights body.
Political detainees are “surviving on meager rations and are reduced to using rice sacks for clothing and bedding,” the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a July 10 statement.
“Bhutan’s government cultivates an enlightened international image by propounding the theory of ‘gross national happiness,’ but the blatantly abusive treatment of these prisoners tells a different story,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, HRW’s deputy Asia director.
She called on foreign governments and multilateral organizations to push for the release of political prisoners.
HRW cited a recent interview with Ram Bahadur Rai, a 66-year-old former prisoner who was expelled from Bhutan soon after his release on July 5 after completing his jail term.
Rai was among 34 prisoners convicted of political offenses. The others are still believed to be in Bhutanese prisons.
Rai alleged that he had no access to a defense lawyer before and during his fabricated trial which ended with a prison sentence of 31 years and 10 months, HRW said.
“He was tortured so severely that he was hospitalized, only to be returned to jail and further tortured,” it alleged. “The torture had left him unable to write his own application for an appeal.”
HRW said that Rai’s appeal was rejected, and he was warned that if he appealed again his sentence could be increased.
Rai claimed prison facilities have almost halved in Chemgang prison, near the capital Thimphu. He was held there in a block with 24 others and termed “anti-national” by Bhutanese authorities.
Allegedly, the prisoners were obliged to buy their own medication if they fell sick and had to wait up to eight months if they needed to see a doctor, Rai told HRW.
Several are in “very poor” health, he said while adding that food rations have been reduced to half their previous level.
Prisoners are supplied with a blanket every three years and a mattress every 18 months, and it is of such poor quality that it is “unusable after a month or two,” Rai said.
The clothes that are provided to the prisoners are too small, Rai said adding that they “collected rice sacks to use for clothing and bedding.”
Rai accused the Bhutan Red Cross Society, which is supposed to have taken over the duties of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in supporting prisoners’ welfare, of inaction.
The remaining prisoners had asked Rai to appeal for the ICRC to resume its engagement, HRW said.
Despite having a multi-party democracy since 2008, the Himalayan kingdom continues to hold in prison the people who were regarded as opponents of the former autocratic system.
According to Bhutanese Law, only King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck can commute the life sentence.
King Wangchuck “could end the unjust suffering of these prisoners and their families with a stroke of a pen,” Ganguly said.
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