By Tenzin Choephel
Phayul Correspondent
A Chinese delegation headed by Chinese Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs Wu Dawei was in Kathmandu from July 27-29. They met most of the top government officials including the Prime Minister, the Chinese Government increased their aid to Nepal by over 50 percent. They said they came here to talk about how they could help Nepal in the peace process but since last three days all the news in the Nepali Media was about them always talking about Tibetans, that indicates that the Tibetan refugee issue was one of their major point of discussion. They suggested that serious homework should be done on the part of the Nepalese authorities on the decision of providing outgoing visas to 5,000 Tibetan refugees for resettlement in the United States.
A Tibetan living in Swayambu said, “Chinese don’t want Tibetans to live peacefully in Nepal, they don’t want them to resettle in third countries, we really don’t understand what they want, Tibetans don’t wish to return to Tibet unless there is mutual agreement between Tibetan Government (in Exile) and Chinese Government over genuine autonomy of Tibet including the three traditional regions of Tibet namely Utsang, Kham and Amdo, out of which part of Kham and whole of Amdo Region are currently incorporated into Chinese territories”. In simple words, they want to pressure the Nepal Government to make life difficult for Tibetans in Nepal by giving big financial aid that the Nepal Government very much needs.
Before leaving for China, Mr. Wu said , “the Nepalese Government have always followed the policy of properly handling this issue, so we appreciate the policy of the Nepalese Government and the Nepalese leaders are clearly aware of the sensitivity of this issue”. He indicated that they were quite happy with how the Nepal Government has been dealing with Tibetan Refugees in Nepal.
The Nepal Government has time and again said that Tibetans coming to Nepal before 1989 were regarded as refugees whereas all Tibetans who entered Nepal after that are illegal immigrants and they have not issued any RC (Refugee Certificate/ID) to Tibetans since then. Officially there are about 14,000 Tibetans living in Nepal but locals estimate that there are more than 20,000 Tibetans living in Nepal with or without legal documents.
One of the popular TV channel of Nepal, Kantipur TV said in their 10 PM News that, “visa process (Exit Permit/Travel Document) for 5000 Tibetans has already been initiated by the Nepal Government for their resettlement in the United States”.
