Dharamsala, August 16 – Nepalese police have arrested 25 Tibetans including 6 women for anti China protests at the United Nation’s office in Kathmandu Friday. There were around 30 Tibetans with banners and Tibetan national flags at Pulchowk area where the United Nations office is located.
The Tibetans were demanding justice from the United Nations for the Tibetans killed last year in the Chinese crackdown on protesters following the March uprising in the Tibetan capital that later spread across the Himalayan region. The Tibetans in the Nepalese capital have held 57 peaceful protests against China since March 2008 facing harsh treatment from the Nepalese government that came under strong criticism for its treatment of the Tibetan refugees.
The protest was organized by a group called New Age Network that pledges more such protests until an end to Chinese rule in Tibet. The same group carried out its last protest outside the UN office on 14 July, 2009. Sources say that new groups are deliberately formed as it has become extremely difficult for the major Tibetan NGOs like TYC and TWA to carry out anti China activities in Nepal with police zeroing it on the leaders and arresting them without charges.
“Free Tibet. Stop killings in Tibet. Wake up UN, investigate the killings, Long live the Dalai Lama” the protesters shouted outside the UN office before being bundled into police trucks.
Thousands of Tibetan refugees reside in Nepal, which is a transit for many who cross into India each year to see the Dalai Lama.
China claims Tibet as part of its territory, but many Tibetans say the Himalayan region was virtually independent for centuries until Chinese troops invaded in the 1950s.
