E/CN.4/1995/31/Add.3 page 16 of a decree issued by the King in May 1989. For this Tek Nath Rizal, a former counsellor of the King and President of the Peoples Forum for Human Rights (PFHR), was charged with publishing seditious literature and indulging in anti-national activities. Apparently, the PFHR published the booklet referred to above. 6. In its reply dated 11 December 1991, the Government of Bhutan, although it did not deny the allegations, detailed the activities of Tek Nath Rizal which, according to the Government, were directed at inciting the people against the Government through a disinformation campaign and were further directed at damaging Bhutan’s relations with a friendly neighbour, India. The reply went on to state that in April 1988, Tek Nath Rizal, a Royal Advisory Counsellor from Chirang district, attempted to create misunderstanding between the Government and the people by falsely reporting that the southern Bhutanese were on the verge of rebellion because of their resentment against the nationwide census which was then being carried out. At the same time, he was inciting the people of southern Bhutan by alleging that the Government was using the census as a pretext to expel as many southern Bhutanese as possible from the Kingdom, in order to confiscate their properties. Although this was a treasonable act, His Majesty showed clemency to Tek Nath Rizal and no legal action was taken against him apart from terminating him from service. Instead of being grateful for such leniency, Tek Nath Rizal emigrated to Nepal with his family and from there began to incite southern Bhutanese to rebel against the Government. With the help of disgruntled persons like the Gazmere brothers (Ratan and Jogen) and Sushil Pokhrel, and illegal immigrants who had settled in Bhutan, a massive disinformation campaign was launched to win the sympathy of human rights groups around the world. 7. According to the Government, these anti-national elements then spread malicious lies among the people of southern Bhutan alleging that the Government was discriminating against the southern Bhutanese of Nepalese descent and destroying their Hindu culture. They grossly distorted the reasons for the 1988 census and the policy of strengthening Bhutan’s national identity. They unsuccessfully attempted to sow seeds of discord between the Government and the people of eastern Bhutan through baseless allegations that the Royal Government had been discriminating against the eastern Bhutanese. 8. Furthermore, the Government stated that in an attempt to create misunderstanding between the peoples of India and Bhutan, Tek Nath Rizal and others fed Indian newspapers with false accounts of Indian businessmen and labourers being harassed in Bhutan and of Hinduism being suppressed in Bhutan. Even the Government’s ban of foreign television programmes in order to protect the Kingdom’s unique culture was dubbed by these people as an anti-Indian move. 9. The Government further stated that while it was fortunate that the machinations of Tek Nath Rizal and others had not harmed Bhutan’s traditionally good relations with India, they had nevertheless destabilized the Kingdom. Tek Nath Rizal and others not only succeeded in fanning communal passions but launched an extremely violent terrorist movement in Bhutan which forced the closure of schools, basic health units and other services, and brought all developmental activities to a halt.