Last year, there were separate eyewitness reports by Western mountain climbers of Chinese border police firing upon Tibetan refugees as well as pursuing refugees across Nangpa la into Nepal territory. Nepalese police in Namche Bazaar, the main trading village south of Nangpa La, spoke frankly to ICT human rights monitors last year shortly after a shooting incident.
“During our investigation of the Chinese border incursion, we collected at least a dozen spent rifle shell casing as far south as Khanjung on our side of the pass,” a police official in Namche told ICT human rights monitors. No public reprimands of the Chinese were made by Nepalese authorities at the time.
In mid October of this year, a group of 34 Tibetan refugees were fired upon by Chinese border security while attempting to cross into Nepal over Nangpa La. The incident took place two kilometers above Gyaplung at the glacial lake of Tso Tangyura where the group of refugees was spotted by border patrols.
“When the machine gun fire started hitting around us, we ran in all directions,” a 25-year-old refugee told ICT in Kathmandu. “We ran back where we came from just trying to avoid the army. After hiding from the gun blasts for many hours, we climbed over Nangpa La in the middle of the night and walked the entire day on the Nepal side as we were so scared.”
The same 25-year-old individual told ICT that only 17 members of the group of 34 successfully made it over the Nangpa La while the others were caught by the border security. It is not known if any of apprehended 17 were shot.
In early September of this year, a 17-year old girl died after evading the border police at Tragmar by falling in a crevasse on the Tibet side of Nangpa la.
“We decided it would be safer to move at night but we lost our way,” a companion of the deceased girl told ICT after arriving in Kathmandu in October.
“My friend slipped and fell into the deep ice crack. We all tied our belts and shirt together attempting to pull her our but the makeshift rope kept snapping. After some time, we couldn’t hear her voice coming from the ice crack anymore.”
On November 14, 2003 China’s ambassador in Nepal, Sun Heping, reiterated his government’s stance that it would do what is necessary to stop Tibetans from fleeing Tibet. “There is no Tibetan refugee problem between us (China and Nepal) but those who have been creating problems are illegal immigrants crossing over to Nepal,” AFP quoted Sun as saying.
The Chinese envoy was further quoted in the pro-Chinese Nepalese journal, The People’s Review, as saying Tibetan refugees entering Nepal do so “forcibly and without any valid reason and have already become an international nuisance and problem all over the world.”
Approximately 2,500 Tibetans annually escape from Tibetan enroute to India. Approximately a third of those refugees are children under 18 years who are seeking a Tibetan language education unavailable to them under Chinese rule. Approximately one quarter of the refugees who successfully escape Tibet are monks and nuns who flee due to Chinese repression of religious beliefs and practices.
