The Foreign Ministry said Thursday violence broke out at a refugee camp in Jhapa this week involving Bhutanese officials because of the “uncontrolled” statement of a Bhutanese official.

The Foreign Ministry Thursday, in a strong statement, blamed the Bhutanese for Monday’s incident at the Khudanabari refugee camp where refugees man-handled Bhutanese officials and damaged their motor vehicles.

Nepali and Bhutanese officials had gone to the camp to inform the refugees of the repatriation process and verify the status of some refugees placed in the non-Bhutanese category after an agreement to begin repatriation at the 15th ministerial meeting in Thimpu.

The strong Foreign Ministry reaction comes amid Bhutanese charges the incident at the camp was pre-planned. The Ministry said it was ‘ surprised’ at the Bhutanese reaction and said nobody was injured at the camp or required hospital treatment.

The Foreign Ministry said there was no need for the Bhutanese team members of the Joint Verification Team (JVT) to return home; the incident has put a question mark on the repatriation of 12,000 refugees from February next year.

The Ministry dismissed Bhutanese charges, in an official statement this week, that security at the camp was inadequate. The Ministry said the Bhutanese members of the JVT were taken to a safe place after the incident.

The reaction comes after the return to Kathmandu of the Nepalese contingent and de-briefing. The Foreign Ministry said it is trying to get in touch with Bhutan to discuss the issue on the sidelines of their SAARC summit in Islamabad in January next year.

The Foreign Ministry statement hoped it will have “no serious implication” on the repatriation process and asked Bhutan to “rectify” the statements of Bhutanese officials at the camp against the agreement between the two countries in October. nepalnews.com br Dec.25