Violence and Human Rights Abuses Against the Lhotshampa

The forced expulsion of the Lhotshampa from Bhutan between 1989 and 1993 was accompanied by systematic and widespread human rights abuses committed by agents of the Bhutanese state, including the Royal Bhutan Army (RBA), the Royal Bhutan Police (RBP), and civilian administrators. These abuses were not isolated incidents but formed a deliberate pattern of state violence designed to terrorize the Lhotshampa population into leaving the country. The abuses have been extensively documented by international human rights organizations and constitute ethnic cleansing under the definitions established in international humanitarian law.

Arbitrary Arrest and Detention

Beginning in late 1989 and intensifying after the 1990 protests, Bhutanese security forces arrested thousands of Lhotshampa on charges of "anti-national activities." The term was applied indiscriminately to anyone who had participated in the demonstrations, signed a petition, spoken to a foreign journalist, or was merely a relative or associate of someone who had done any of these things. Arrests were carried out without warrants, and detainees were held without charge for weeks, months, or in some cases years.

Amnesty International documented the cases of hundreds of Lhotshampa held as prisoners of conscience. The most prominent was Tek Nath Rizal, a former National Assembly member arrested in 1989 and sentenced to life imprisonment on treason charges after a trial that international observers condemned as fundamentally unfair. Rizal was held in solitary confinement for extended periods and subjected to mistreatment. He was not released until 1999, after a royal amnesty.¹

Detention facilities included army camps, police stations, and improvised holding centers across the southern districts. Conditions were uniformly harsh: overcrowding, inadequate food and water, no access to legal counsel, no communication with families, and no judicial review of detention. Detainees reported being held in rooms so small they could not lie down, and being denied medical treatment for injuries sustained during arrest or interrogation.

Torture

Torture of Lhotshampa detainees was systematic and pervasive. Methods documented by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the Refugee International Group include:

Severe beatings: Detainees were beaten with rifle butts, bamboo canes, metal rods, and fists during interrogation and as punishment. Beatings often targeted the soles of the feet (falanga), the kidneys, and the genitals.
Electric shock: Electrodes were applied to the genitals, fingers, earlobes, and other sensitive body parts. Multiple former detainees independently described identical methods, indicating standardized practice.
Suspension torture: Detainees were hung from ceilings or beams by their wrists, which were bound behind their backs, for hours at a time. This practice causes extreme pain and can result in permanent nerve damage and dislocation of shoulders.
Water torture: Heads were submerged in water or buckets of urine until the point of near-drowning. Water mixed with chili powder was forced into nostrils.
Deprivation: Prolonged denial of food, water, sleep, and access to sanitation. Detainees were forced to remain standing for days.
Mock executions: Soldiers staged execution scenarios with loaded weapons pointed at detainees' heads, pulling triggers on empty chambers.

Amnesty International's 1994 report "Bhutan: Forcible Exile" documented these methods based on testimony from scores of former detainees. The consistency of accounts from individuals detained at different times and locations confirmed that torture was not the work of individual abusers but a matter of institutional practice.¹

Rape and Sexual Violence

Rape and sexual violence against Lhotshampa women and girls were committed by members of the RBA and RBP during eviction operations, at checkpoints, and in detention. Human Rights Watch's 2003 report "Trapped by Inequality" documented cases in detail, based on testimony gathered from survivors in the refugee camps in Nepal. The report established that sexual violence was used both opportunistically and as a deliberate weapon of terror to compel families to flee.²

Documented patterns include:

Soldiers entering homes during eviction operations and raping women in front of family members.
Gang rape of detained women by multiple soldiers.
Sexual assault at military checkpoints, where women traveling without male relatives were particularly targeted.
Rape of women whose husbands had already fled or been detained, leaving them without any form of protection.
Sexual violence against girls as young as 13 and 14 years of age.

Survivors who reported assaults to authorities were ignored, threatened with further violence, or told that as "anti-nationals" they had no rights. No Bhutanese soldier or police officer was ever investigated or prosecuted for sexual violence against Lhotshampa women. The stigma associated with rape in South Asian societies meant that many survivors did not disclose their experiences for years, and the true scale of sexual violence during the evictions is almost certainly larger than what has been documented.²

Extrajudicial Killings and Deaths in Custody

Multiple Lhotshampa died as a direct result of violence inflicted by Bhutanese security forces. Deaths occurred during eviction operations, at checkpoints, and in detention. Specific documented cases include individuals beaten to death during interrogation, shot while attempting to flee eviction operations, and killed by soldiers during village raids. The Bhutanese government has never acknowledged these deaths or provided any accounting of the number of people who died during the eviction period.

In detention, deaths resulted from the cumulative effects of torture, denial of medical treatment, and harsh conditions. Bodies of detainees who died in custody were in some cases returned to families with visible signs of severe trauma; in other cases, families were simply informed of deaths without the return of remains.¹

Forced Labor

Lhotshampa who had not yet been expelled were in some areas subjected to forced labor, compelled by army or police units to work on road construction, military installations, and other government projects without compensation. Refusal to comply was met with arrest or immediate expulsion.

Destruction of Property, Cultural Sites, and Records

The eviction campaign was accompanied by systematic destruction of Lhotshampa property and cultural infrastructure. Homes were demolished after families departed. Agricultural land was confiscated and redistributed to settlers from northern Bhutan. Hindu temples, shrines, and community gathering places were destroyed or converted. Schools that had taught in Nepali were closed. Land records, citizenship documents, and tax receipts — the very documents that could prove Lhotshampa had been legitimate citizens and residents — were seized and destroyed by officials. This destruction of documentary evidence was a calculated act designed to eliminate proof of the Lhotshampa's historical presence in southern Bhutan.³

International Documentation and Response

The abuses against the Lhotshampa were documented by multiple international organizations:

Amnesty International published reports in 1992, 1994, and subsequent years documenting arbitrary detention, torture, and forced expulsion.
Human Rights Watch published detailed reports in 2003 and 2007 on the treatment of Lhotshampa, with particular focus on sexual violence and the failure of the bilateral negotiation process.
The U.S. State Department annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for Bhutan documented the abuses consistently throughout the 1990s.
UNHCR registered over 107,000 refugees and documented the circumstances of their flight.

Despite this documentation, no international criminal tribunal, truth commission, or accountability mechanism has ever been established to address the crimes committed against the Lhotshampa. Bhutan continues to deny that systematic abuses occurred, maintaining that all Lhotshampa left the country voluntarily.

References

Amnesty International. "Bhutan: Forcible Exile." ASA 14/04/94, August 1994. https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/asa14/004/1994/en/
Human Rights Watch. "Trapped by Inequality: Bhutanese Refugee Women in Nepal." September 2003. https://www.hrw.org/reports/2003/nepal0903/
WRITENET / Refworld. "The Exodus of Ethnic Nepalis from Southern Bhutan." 1995. https://www.refworld.org/reference/countryrep/writenet/1995/en/33123
U.S. Department of State. Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Bhutan. 1991–2003.
Hutt, Michael. Unbecoming Citizens: Culture, Nationhood, and the Flight of Refugees from Bhutan. Oxford University Press, 2003.