March 24, 2008 Nepal Unleashes Force
on Tibetan Protesters By Sudeshna Sarkar
Kathmandu
Even as Nepal's multi-party, pro-democracy government allowed
Bhutanese refugees to exit the country safely and make a fresh start
in the US, riot police here Monday brutally beat up unarmed Tibetan
refugees, including women, nuns and monks.
The police also arrested over 300 people in what human rights
activists called a gross display of double standards.
The UN headquarters in Kathmandu Valley and the Maitighar Mandala, a
circular park famous for pro-democracy and human rights protests,
turned into battlefields as the police armed with batons and even
guns swooped down on groups of Tibetans who were sitting peacefully,
chanting slogans for independence from China, and brutally tore down
the simple placards held by them.
"Shame on you," spat a 49-year-old woman, who identified herself
only as Tsekyi. "What happened to human rights in Nepal?"
The peaceful Tibetan diaspora, who are Buddhists and have been
living in Nepal for decades since their parents and grandparents
fled Tibet after China invaded the Buddhist kingdom in the 1950s,
have been staging peaceful protests in front of the UN office and
the Chinese embassy in Kathmandu for a week and a half. week.
The protests, which started after their rally last week in memory of
the Dalai Lama's flight to India 49 years ago, triggered a
suppression by the Nepal government.
Nepal supports Beijing's "One China" policy, which holds Tibet and
Taiwan to be an integral part of the communist republic.
Two of the ruling parties in Nepal's coalition government - the
Maoists and the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist -
have condemned the anti-China protests in Nepal.
The police dragged over 300 people from the two demonstration sites
into vans and put them under arrest, unmoved by protests from human
rights activists including those of Amnesty International that had
organised one of the protests.
Tshering Lalgom, 42, who was born in Nepal, said the protests were
to make China stop its actions in Tibet and release all prisoners
arrested for espousing the cause of a free Tibet.
"The killings are continuing even today," she said, choked by sobs.
"But no one is taking up the cause of the victims. The world has
forgotten that Tibet is ours."
A large number of prominent Nepal human rights activists, including
a former member of the National Human Rights Commission, were also
arrested for protesting against the Nepali police suppression of the
peaceful sit-ins.
"It is a blatant violation of the right to freedom of expression and
peaceful assembly," said Gopal Siwakoti, head of the Institute for
Human Rights, Environment and Development.
"It also shows the double standards of a government that allows one
group of refugees to exit safely while preventing another from even
holding peaceful gatherings."
Siwakoti said the Nepali crackdown on Tibetans would send a very
negative message to the world on the eve of a crucial election next
month.
"It will tarnish Nepal's human rights record and show what a low
tolerance level the government has for refugees," he said.
In a bid to appease Beijing, Nepal has also curbed expeditions to Mt
Everest, the highest peak in the world, till the Olympic torch run
reaches the 8,848-metre peak's base so that any potential Tibetan
bid to scale the peak and unfurl a "Free Tibet" banner is pipped at
the post.
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