The Ministry of Foreign Affairs received more than a thousand e-mails in which the senders protest against the shooting of Tibetan refugees by Chinese soldiers. “That is really quite a lot”, Ministry spokesman Herman van Gelderen said on Friday evening. “Even in case of Tibetan movement in The Netherlands, it’s still very large a number,” he further added.
The tragedy happened in September and was filmed by a foreign mountaineering TV crew. However, the footage turned up only this weekend. It shows how a group of Tibetans, during their attempt to cross the border to Nepal, comes under fire from the Chinese border police. One of the Tibetan was evidently killed in the incident. On Friday the director of the Foreign Affairs Department communicated to the Chinese ambassador the expressing deep concern of Minister Ben Bot (Christian Democrats) over the matter. On Thursday, the Minister said in Parliament that he was deeply shocked and felt the explanation given by the Chinese very unsatisfactory. The director also pointed out the large number of protest e-mails.
The Chinese ambassador stated that warning shots were fired, “about five of them”, Van Gelderen (spokesman of the Dutch Foreign Affairs Ministry) said. The Tibetans allegedly started throwing stones after which the victims fell. The statement that ‘it would be a concern human traffickers’ is insufficient Van Gelderen made clear. He furthermore added, “It’s not our intention to keep waiting forever,” Van Gelderen said. He expects a reaction within a few weeks.
Above report was translated from Dutch by Mieke. The original report was published in Novum on 20th Oct.
The latest statement regarding Nangpa La on the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in The Hague, Netherlands: http://www.minbuza.nl/nl/actueel/nieuwsberichten,2006/10/
Minister-Bot-bezorgd-over-incident-Nangpa-pas.html
Main difference between the news articles and the news on the Ministry’s own website is that in the latter it is added that the Chinese should very soon also provide information about the condition and location of the injured, and of those who were arrested during the incident.
