By Tenzin Choephel
Phayul Correspondent
Kathmandu, June 3: Over 30 Tibetan women, including nuns today resumed the briefly halted Tibetan protests in Kathmandu.
The activists protested near the Chinese Consulate in Hattisar, Kathmandu this afternoon demanding China to stop violating human rights, arrest, detention and torture, which they said are still being carried out rampantly by the Chinese authorities in Tibet.
The protesters, backed by four men, shouted slogans – ‘liar, liar, Hu Jintao’, ‘Free Tibet’ and ‘long live Dalai Lama’.
Police quickly moved in to stop the protesters as they marched towards the consulate gate shouting slogans. As usual, Police began arresting them and dragged them and pulled them by hair, and shoved them into a Police truck.
“One particular police officer hit several times on some of the protestors with his baton and then went back as if he had enough,” a Human Rights observer told Phayul. “It was totally unnecessary, they need more discipline,” he exclaimed.
A total of 32 Tibetans and the four men were arrested and detained at Mahendra Police Club and were later released late in the evening.
Today’s protest led by Tibetan women lasted only about 15 minutes. The protest marked the third phase of Tibetan protest campaigns in Nepal after series of protests initiated since March 10 had to be briefly halted twice following Tibetan Government-in-exile’s calls to show restraint during the Nepal constituent election in April and to stand in solidarity with victims of the May 12 earthquake in China.
“We have resumed our protest today. We followed the call from our government to halt protest activities until May end, but now we need to protest again as China is still locking out Tibet,” one of the protestors told Phayul. “Wwe don’t know anything about Tibetans inside. We still hear about continued crackdown and arrest, so we cannot keep quiet,” the activist said.
