By Phurbu Thinley
Dharamsala, July 5: The Nepal government on Sunday reportedly issued orders prohibiting all kinds of demonstrations targeted against Chinese rule in Tibet.
“The government on Sunday issued prohibitory orders on all kinds of demonstration in the country that is targeted against the Chinese rule in Tibet,” Nepalnews reported.
According to the report, Nepal Home Ministry, after issuing a notice, said “activities against China’s Tibet autonomous region is prohibited” and asked all to “refrain from engaging in any such activities.”
The government’s move comes ahead of the planned ‘free Tibet’ demonstration that is scheduled to start in the capital from Monday coinciding with the birth anniversary of Tibetan religious leader the Dalai Lama, the report said.
The report, however, carried no further detail on the alleged “planned” protest by Tibetans.
The Exiled Tibetan leader His Holiness the Dalai Lama will turn 74 on Monday.
This not the first time the Nepalese authorities have made such a move against Tibetan demonstrations.
A visit by Chinese delegation in February this year, forced the district administration in Kathmandu, which last year witnessed unbroken protests by Tibetans for almost eight months, to impose an indefinite order prohibiting all protests near the Chinese embassy and its visa office. The ban came just days before the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Tibetan Uprising Day in March.
Nepal’s brutal handling of Tibetan protesters last year had come under intense international criticism and the government had been accused of cracking down on the refugees under Chinese pressure.
China has regularly sent high-level official delegations to Nepal to remind its government against “Free-Tibet activities” while promising to increase assistance to the crisis-ridden country in return.
Just last week a high-level Chinese delegation arrived in Nepal to remind the government against resumption of anti-China protests in Nepal by Tibetan refugees.
The Chinese team, led by Zhang Jiuhuan, a former ambassador to Nepal and current politburo member of the Communist Party of China, arrived in the Nepalese capital Kathmandu just five days after Nepal police arrested several Tibetans protesters near the Tibet border.
Around 35 Tibetans, including eight women, were trying to cross the Nepal border and reach the Chinese-occupied Tibet to stage protest march that would draw attention to the ‘violation of human rights’ in their homeland.
According to Nepalese media reports, China was also reportedly concerned at some Nepalese lawmakers’ recent visit to Dharamsala, the seat of Tibet’s Government in exile in north India.
