By Kalsang Rinchen
Dharamsala, April 19 – Nepalese Police last Friday (April 16, 2010) arrested eight Tibetans from Singati bazaar in Dolakha district for “illegally” entering the country from Tibet, reported kantipur online.
Six Tibetan women and two men, according to the District Police Office, would be handed over to the Immigration Department in Kathmandu for further investigation.
Every year, many Tibetans escape via Nepal to India, often after undertaking risky journey across the harsh terrains of the Himalayas. Statistics reveal that approximately a third are children who are sent to study in Tibetan exile schools in India. Several monks and nuns travel to India to seek religious education, which the Tibetans say, is made difficult in Tibet due to restrictions placed on monasteries and nunneries by the Chinese Communist government.
Past estimates suggest between 2,500 and 3,000 Tibetans escape Tibet and enter Nepal each year on their way to Dharamsala, the seat of Tibetan Government-in-Exile in north India. The number has slowed down dramatically since 2008 after Nepal beefed up security along its border with Tibet following ‘Chinese pressure’.
Recently Nepal announced its decision to tighten Tibet border by deploying armed police for the first time along its northern Mustang-Tibet border, raising criticism that the move was prompted by pressure from China.
Following the “massive” anti-China unrest in Tibet in 2008, China has been sending a flurry of high-level official delegations to Nepal to ensure it effectively curbs “Free-Tibet activities” on its soil. In return China promises to increase assistance to the crisis-ridden country.
Tibetans exiles in Nepal in 2008 staged some of the most dramatic and sustained demonstrations in the Nepalese capital Kathmandu, targeting the Chinese embassy, its visa office and the United Nations after unrest against Chinese rule in Tibet faced Chinese military crackdown.
