Published: June 18, 2010
New Dangers for Tibetans in Nepal
By ICT report
New dangers for Tibetans in Nepal; Chinese border forces seek group of Tibetan refugees
A group of Tibetan refugees narrowly escaped being returned to Tibet last week after Nepalese police began to walk them back to the border. The group, including two children, was forced to remain in hiding as Chinese border forces searched for them on the Nepal side of the border.
Two new reports published by the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) in advance of World Refugee Day on June 20 document the intensifying dangers for Tibetans in Nepal - both in transit and long-staying - this year in an uncertain political climate two years on from the beginning of protests and a security clampdown across Tibet.
Under pressure from the Chinese authorities, which regard the Tibet issue as the defining element of its bilateral relations with the Kathmandu government, Nepal adopted a tougher approach to Tibetans and a disturbing inconsistency was evident in terms of its role in established procedures agreeing on the safe transit of Tibetans escaping from Tibet through Nepal.
Mary Beth Markey, ICT's Vice President for international Advocacy, said: "The serious and well-documented human rights situation in Tibet continues to provoke the flight from Tibet of hundreds of Tibetans each year. Chinese strategies to thwart the flight and the reception of Tibetan refugees in Nepal have become more aggressive. With the emergence of those strategies, those who seek to provide for the protection of new and resident Tibetan refugees, including the UNHCR and sympathetic foreign governments, will need to cooperate as widely as possible in finding both diplomatic and durable solutions so that Tibetans can build a full and free life in exile until they are able to return to Tibet."
These new reports document the following:
An incident last week in which Tibetan refugees in transit, mainly women and with two sick children, had to hide in a forest in Nepal while Chinese armed police searched for them - after Nepalese police had started to transport them back to the border. In a further case, Tibetan refugees were being walked back to the border by Nepalese police before they managed to escape.
Tougher language from government officials and senior police officers in Nepal threatening deportation of Tibetan new arrivals, which runs counter to established procedures agreeing on safe transit of Tibetans escaping from Tibet through Nepal.
Evidence of inconsistency and lack of clarity in the treatment of Tibetans in transit from Tibet by both Nepalese government officials and border forces, indicating an undermining of the "Gentleman's Agreement" that allows safe passage for Tibetan refugees through the border areas to Kathmandu and onward to India.
A climate of fear and insecurity among Tibetans in Nepal, intensified by pre-emptive arrests of Tibetans, ID checks and house and hotel searches prior to the March 10 anniversary of Tibet's National Uprising in 1959 (which was also the second anniversary of the beginning of the wave of protests that swept Tibet from March 10, 2008 onwards). The large-scale deployment of armed police in Tibetan monasteries, nunneries and schools on the day of the anniversary. A threat to open fire upon peaceful Tibetan protestors if they demonstrated outside the Chinese consulate was made by a senior Nepalese official to a senior Tibetan community representative in Nepal a few days before March 10.
A continued lack of morale and vulnerability among thousands of Tibetans in Nepal who are undocumented and therefore "illegal." While they are recognized as a legitimate community in Nepal in the context of centuries-old cultural, religious and commercial ties, most Tibetans born in Nepal since 1989 have no right to work or travel. An official in Kathmandu describes the ongoing pressure on the Tibetan community combined with their lack of status as "death by a thousand cuts."
The reports, entitled: 'A Fragile Welcome: China's influence on Nepal and its impact on Tibetans' and 'Dangerous Crossing: Conditions Impacting the Flight of Tibetan Refugees' can be downloaded from ICT's website,
www.savetibet.org, from June 19. The reports are embargoed until June 19.
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