By Tenzin Choephel
Phayul Correspondent
Kathmandu, June 10: Tibetan exiles in Nepal on Tuesday intensified their third phase of protest against China with over 300 Tibetans staging a mock-drama protest near the Chinese Consulate in Hattisar.
Over 100 protestors arrived in two buses and marched towards the Consulate but were soon stopped by Police as usual. They were later followed by 11 Tibetan activists dressed in Chinese military uniform and carrying toy guns, pistols and batons. They were seen charging another group of demonstrators to stage a mock protest of Chinese military crackdown on anti-China demonstrators in Tibet. The demonstrators smeared red color on their face and body, symbolizing Tibetan victims of China’s bloody crackdown.
Another group of more than 300 protestors followed the mock protest shouting pro-Tibet and anti-China slogans. These Protesters repeatedly screamed ‘Free Tibet’, “Long live the Dalai Lama” and “Hu Jintao liar” slogans.
At first Nepali police appeared bemused seeing activists in Chinese military outfits. When they finally understood the nature of the protest they immediately began stopping and arresting them.
“May be they thought they were real Chinese soldiers because of the toy guns. I think it created some confusion in them,” one Tibetan onlooker explains.
Some 267 Tibetan demonstrators were arrested today and were detained in four different police stations and were later released.
According to onlookers, police dragged the protesters to waiting police vans and shoved them inside. Those who resisted were being punched and kicked.
“Today also we got beaten by baton. They (police) kicked and punched us randomly on head, kidney and chest. Some were choked by neck and sustained minor injuries. Six of us got badly injured” one of the demonstrators Ngawang Gyaltsen explained while talking to Phayul.
Ngawang said he was surprised to that those activist wearing Chinese military uniforms were kept separately from other protestors.
The Tibetan exiles in Nepal began staging almost daily protests in Kathmandu in March after widespread unrest in their homeland that became the largest anti-China protests in more than 20 years.
They twice suspended their protests, one after a catastrophic earthquake hit China on May 12, leaving about 70,000 people dead, 18,000 missing and 15 million more homeless.
But last week they restarted protests in which usually hundreds of demonstrators gather, many are detained and are then released without charge.
They return the next day to be detained again.
Nepal officially respects neighbouring Communist giant’s “One China” policy that regards Tibet and Taiwan as indivisible parts of China, a key aid donor, and refuses to allow anti-China protests on its soil.
More than 20,000 Tibetan refugees live in Nepal and around 2,500 still arrive annually in Kathmandu through porous Himalayan border terrains before heading to Dharamshala in northern India, home of the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government-in-exile.
