KOLKATA: Leaders of Bhutan's political parties set up in exile (in India and Nepal) have welcomed King Jigme Singye Wangchuk's announcement that he will abdicate the throne in 2008 and arrange for elections under the country's first Constitution. But they are sceptical whether the move toward democracy will signal the repatriation of more than a lakh refugees of Nepalese origin.

Most of these refugees, who started leaving Bhutan since 1989 after a crackdown on "non-nationals," are sheltered in seven camps in eastern Nepal's Jhapa and Morang districts run by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, among others.

"The issue of citizenship of Bhutanese of Nepalese origin has grown into a wider movement for democracy, a large of number of whose supporters including myself were thrown into prison," said Rongthong Kunley Dorjee, who escaped to India in 1991 and formed the Druk National Congress in New Delhi. "The fate of more than a lakh of refugees who were driven out of Bhutan remains uncertain. Will democracy ensure that they return to their homes?"

Also "we will have to see how much power the throne continues to enjoy [after the abdication]," Mr. Dorjee told The Hindu on Monday.

Similar questions have been raised by the leadership of the Bhutan National Democratic Party, set up by Bhutanese-in-exile in Birphamod in Jhapa district in February 1992.

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