DHARAMSHALA, November 11: The US Special Coordinator for Tibetan issues, Sarah Sewall, has arrived on Sunday in Kathmandu where she will meet with Tibetan refugees and also call on the Nepali PM Sushil Koirala.
Sewall, who was appointed to the post in February this year, is expected to raise the issues of Tibetan communities in Nepal and Nepal’s stern policy against them during her meeting with the Nepali authorities.
During her stay in Kathmandu, Sewall will also meet Foreign Minister Mahendra Bahadur Pandey and other government officials, according to the US Department of State.
Sewall is scheduled to visit the Tibetan refugee camps in the Kathmandu Valley and Pokhara.
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
Sewall will also visit Dharmasala, home to the exiled Tibetan leader His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the seat of the Tibetan exile government (officially called the Central Tibetan Administration). Sewall is also expected to meet the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan PM Lobsang Sangay. Sewall had met the Dalai Lama soon after she took up the position in February.
“She will announce a new award of $3.2 million for a Tibetan Health System Strengthening Project to universalise access to quality health services, and especially to end preventable child and maternal deaths and create tuberculosis free communities, for Tibetan refugee communities in India and Nepal,” the U.S. Department of State said.
Sewall had announced in September that she would travel to India and Nepal to meet Tibetans in exile.
“As the Special Coordinator for Tibetan Issues, I work to coordinate U.S. government efforts to promote an end to interference by authorities into the religious affairs of the Tibetan people. In this role, I promote the policy of seeking to assist the preservation of the distinct religious heritage of Tibetans,” she told the the House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on National Security on Sept. 18.
