STATES OF IMPUNITY: BHUTANESE REFUGEE CAMPS IN NEPAL

Refugee camps are generally conceived as an indication of ongoing conflict. As refugee generating conflicts become increasingly complex and protracted, however, camps become sites of post-conflict reconstruction. This has been the experience for the Bhutanese refugees who have lived in camps for close to thirty years, and are subject to numerous efforts to reconstruct their lives, community and economy. The international organizations that fund and manage the camps have directed their attention to the society of victims, rather than the state that perpetrated the crimes. Yet because the population lacks citizenship and their camps exist within another post-conflict state, these reconstruction efforts have contributed to corruption and exploitation. This article highlights that when post-conflict reconstruction is used to transform populations rather than states, these efforts may foster corruption because they allow the original perpetrating state to act with impunity.