Nepal stops exiles from marching to Tibet, 30 held

Mon Jul 28, 2008
From Reuters India



KATHMANDU (Reuters) - Nepali police detained 30 Tibetan refugees, including nuns and monks, marching to the Tibetan border to protest against crackdowns on anti-China demonstrators.

The exiles were picked up on Sunday from the northeastern Nepali village of Jalbire, close to the Friendship Bridge which lies on Nepal's border with China and is the only international gateway to Tibet open to tourists.

"They were trying to march to Tibet and see the situation there for themselves," said Tashi Dorjee, a refugee in Kathmandu.

The march on Sunday was the latest in a series of protests by exiled Tibetans in Nepal since deadly anti-government riots broke out in Tibetan capital Lhasa and other areas in China in mid-March, to mark the anniversary of a 1959 failed uprising against Chinese rule.

Nepal, where more than 20,000 exiled Tibetans live, is the second-biggest home for Tibetans outside Tibet after neighbouring India.

Police officer Suraj Khatri Chhetri said the refugees were being driven to Kathmandu, where they would be handed over to immigration authorities.

Nepali police broke up a similar march by Tibetans this month and detained 42 exiles in the same area.

Last week, New York-based Human Rights Watch said that China was putting pressure on Nepal to crack down on protests by the Tibetans, a charge Beijing has denied.
Nepal considers Tibet part of its influential giant neighbour China.

In India, six members of the Tibetan Youth Congress began a hunger strike on Monday in New Delhi to protest against the Olympic Games, which will open next month in Beijing.

"The Chinese people deserve to host the Olympic Games, but what the Tibetans and the Chinese people deserve more now is freedom," the organisation said in a statement.

Nepal police break up Tibet protests, 118 held

From Reuters.com Fri Jul 18, 2008 6:26pm IST


KATHMANDU (Reuters) - Hundreds of protesters calling for independence for Tibet protested in the Nepali capital of Kathmandu on Friday, and police said they took 118 demonstrators into custody for organising anti-China demonstrations.

Many were Tibetan exiles shouting "We want free Tibet" slogans. They burned an effigy of the Chinese President Hu Jintao near a consular office of the Chinese embassy in the Nepali capital.

They were then hauled into police vans and trucks and taken to detention centres. A police official said they would be freed later on Friday.

Tibetans have protested regularly in Nepal since the deadly Chinese crackdown on riots in Lhasa and other parts of Tibet in mid-March.

More than 20,000 Tibetans still live in Nepal since fleeing their homeland after a failed uprising against Beijing in 1959.