Nepal arrests 7 Tibetans, Nepalese prez reiterates one China policy
Phayul
October 28, 2010
Dharamsala, October 28 — Nepalese authorities arrested 7 Tibetans on October 25 from Thankote area in western Nepal, reported the Voice of Tibet radio. The local immigration authorities handed the 7 Tibetans to the National Immigration authorities in Kathmandu on the same day.
The 7 were detained in Kathmandu immigration office where they were interrogated for hours. The authorities found out that 3 of them had Chinese travel permit with them and 4 had Indian Registration Certificate (residential permit issued to Tibetans by the Indian government).
The 4 with Indian permits were fined a penalty of 15000 Nepalese rupees each for illegal entry into Nepal and ordered to leave Nepalese territory within seven days. The other 3 were summoned the following day to the immigration office and their Chinese travel permits were seized. The names and other details of the 3 are not known but the report described them as a 70 year – old – woman from Utsang, a 64 – year – old man from Amdo and a 57 year old man from Kham.
Nepalese armed police disrupted the Tibetan preliminary elections and confiscated ballot boxes containing votes, minutes before the closing of poll.
The forced disruption of Tibetan polls came in the wake of a visit by 21-member high-level Chinese delegation led by He Yong, Secretary of the 17th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, to Nepal last month.
During the visit, the Chinese delegation reportedly expressed satisfaction over “Nepal’s ‘one China’ policy and the alertness adopted by the country over the Tibet issue”.
Prior to the Chinese delegation’s visit, the governments of the two countries had even agreed to set up a joint mechanism to help share intelligence on “anti-China activities” in Nepal.
Nepal, which is home to some 20,000 Tibetans, has accommodated Tibetan exiles for decades, but has come under increasing pressure from China to crack down on the political protests.
Under Beijing’s influence and lack of stable government in the impoverished nation, rights groups say Tibetans refugees in Nepal are increasingly vulnerable and at risk of arrest and repatriation.
Meanwhile, the Nepali President Dr Ram Baran Yadav has reiterated his country’s “One China Policy” during a visit to the Tibetan capital Lhasa where he met Pema Thinley, the governor of the “Tibet Autonomous Region.” Yadav assured Thinley that his country will not allow any anti-China activities on its soil.
The Nepali President is accompanied on his first visit to China and Tibet by 17 member delegation including Nepal’s tourism minister. Yadav will be in Shanghai to participate in the closing ceremony of the Shanghai Expo. He will also meet his counterpart Hu Jintao.