DHARAMSHALA, APRIL 3: Nepal has imposed increasing restrictions on Tibetans living in the country as a result of pressure from China, a new report published on Tuesday by the Human Rights Watch said.
The 100-page report, “Under China’s Shadow: Mistreatment of Tibetans in Nepal,” shows Tibetan refugees living in Nepal are facing a de facto ban on political protests, sharp restrictions on public activities promoting Tibetan culture and religion, and routine abuses by Nepali security forces.
“Nepal continues to deny at least half the Tibetans in Nepal proper identity documents, making Tibetans more vulnerable to increased surveillance, monitoring, and abuse by police or the criminal justice system, regardless of whether they are politically active,” said HRW in a statement.
“The situation for the Tibetan refugee community in Nepal has markedly deteriorated since China’s violent crackdown on protests in Tibet in 2008,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “While Nepal continues to offer some protections to Tibetans, it is succumbing to Chinese pressure to limit the flow of Tibetans across the border and imposing restrictions on Tibetans in violation of its legal obligations. China cloaks its demands as security concerns, but they are really just an extension of its repression in Tibet and aimed at making it harder for Tibetans to tell the world of their plight.”
The new Nepali government should make it clear to China that it will accept Tibetans who flee persecution as refugees and will not restrict basic rights of peaceful expression, assembly, and association, a statement by Human Rights Watch said.
Nepal, home to some 20,000 Tibetans, has accommodated Tibetan exiles for decades but has come under increasing pressure from China, a major donor for the impoverished country, to crack down on the political protests.
Nepal has long been a transit for Tibetans fleeing repression under China with an average of 2000 Tibetans crossing the border to until 2008 when widespread protests across the Tibetan plateau was crushed by the Chinese government. The number has now dwindled with only 200 Tibetans recorded to have crossed into Nepal in 2013. “As a result of a massive security presence in Tibetan areas of China and increased cooperation between Nepalese and Chinese security forces in recent years, China has been able to stem the flow of Tibetan refugees escaping to Nepal.”
“[The Chinese delegation] demanded that Nepal punish the Tibetans illegally entering into Nepalese territory as per the law of the land, instead of handing them over to the UN refugee agency,” a Nepali official present at a Ministry-level meeting in Beijing in July 2012 was quoted in the report.
The HRW report details how Nepal subsequently signed several security and “intelligence-sharing” agreements with China, and implemented close monitoring of the Tibetan community, its leaders, and real or perceived activists.
“Right now we are discussing the possibility of turning in to the Chinese government those Tibetans who do not have legal IDs here and are involved in anti-Chinese movements,” Nepal’s Deputy Inspector Gen. of Police Bharat Bahadur G.C., was quoted as saying in March 2009 by the report.
The report also documents how Nepal breaches the terms of a “Gentleman’s Agreement” between the government of Nepal and the office of the United Nations’ High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), under which Nepal guarantees Tibetans who reach its territory safe passage to India, where they can obtain refugee status. A former senior Nepali Home Ministry official and an official from the Department of Immigration, in the HRW report, have confirmed forced repatriation of Tibetan refugees into Chinese hands.
Nepali officials justify their increasingly restrictive policies toward Tibetan refugees by citing “geopolitical sensitivities,” Nepal’s official adherence to the “one-China principle,” and not allowing “Nepali soil to be used for anti-China activities.” The term “anti-China activities” has no meaning or force in Nepali law, HRW said. “Any policies or practices specifically targeting Tibetan political speech are clearly discriminatory and violate international law. Nepal’s prohibition of peaceful political protests, even those by noncitizens, violates well established international human rights obligations.”
