Nepal urged to end attacks on Bhutanese refugees

KATHMANDU (Reuters) - Seven Western governments have expressed "deep concern" over violent attacks on exiled Bhutanese seeking resettlement and aid workers assisting them, urging Nepal to stop the attackers.

Several countries this year began resettling some of the 107,000 Bhutanese of ethnic Nepali origin who fled their homes in Bhutan or were expelled after demanding democracy and human rights there.

But the refugees, housed in United Nations camps in southeast Nepal, are split over the resettlement scheme.

Some of the exiles, particularly the elderly, say they want to return to their homes in southern Bhutan. The younger exiles prefer to resettle in the West because of better job and education opportunities.

At least one driver working for the International Organization for Migration and two refugees were injured last month when people opposed to the resettlement attacked their vehicles in southeast Nepal.

The resettlement offer from the West came after Nepal and Bhutan failed to negotiate a repatriation deal despite years of talks.

Ambassadors from the United States, Australia, Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway and New Zealand said the attacks were a "fundamental disregard for the welfare of the people whose cause they claim to promote".

"We call on the government of Nepal to bring to justice the perpetrators of these violent attacks," they said in a joint statement late on Friday.

Washington has offered to resettle at least 60,000 refugees.

Hundreds of Bhutanese have already left for their new homes in the United States and other countries.

The government of Bhutan says most of the refugees were illegal immigrants who left of their own accord and has offered to take back only a handful under strict conditions.

(Reporting by Gopal Sharma; Editing by Krittivas Mukherjee and David Fogarty)