More than 550 Tibetans arrested in Nepal

More than 550 Tibetans arrested in Nepal
Toronto Telegraph
Sunday 11th May, 2008
(IANS)

The Nepali police Sunday arrested more than 550 Tibetan demonstrators, most of them women, during anti-China protests in the capital Kathmandu.

The demonstrators, including Tibetan nuns, were arrested as they tried to assemble and march towards the Chinese visa office, which has been the target of protests for the past four days.

Demonstrators wore black arm-bands in a mark of protest against Chinese rule in Tibet and chanted 'We want a free Tibet.'

The demonstrators were dragged to waiting police vans and trucks and driven off to detention centres.

The protesters were expected to be freed later Sunday.

It was the largest number of protesters detained on a single day since Tibetan exiles began almost daily protests in March against Chinese policies in Tibet. Sunday was the first time women only demonstrated.

Nepal has come under increasing criticism from international human rights groups for using force to break up demonstrations.

Nepal has nearly 20,000 Tibetan refugees and every year an estimated 3,000 more try to cross into Nepal to flee Chinese rule in Tibet.

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Comments on this story

By Om Mani, 05-12-08, 11:41 AM

In what is taken as its obsequious gesture towards China, Nepal has launched a massive crackdown on Tibetan demonstrators who are fighting for the freedom of their beloved motherland. Nepal, under the growing influence of Maoist communists, seems to have become exceptionally harsh towards the Tibetan refugees who want their country freed from the Chinese subjugation. Incidentally, the Olympics has brought the Tibetan issue to the forefront over the last sveral months. Tibetans all over the world are united and determined to defeat the Chinese imperialism, no matter how long it takes. They seem equally inspired by what the Buddhist monks of Burma did in the recent past to resist the cruel repression of that country’s military Junta. Unfortunately, they did not succeed in their pious mission. But that does not mean that the sacrifice of the Burmese monks will just peter out. Similarly, Chinese government’s brutal crackdown on the Tibetan demonstrators will certainly pave a sanguine path for the freedom of Tibetans who seem to have been betrayed by their own leader Dalai Lama, whose demand for Tibetan autonomy, to most of his compatriots, amounts to nothing but an ignominious surrender. Western public opinion, especially the media, tends to draw a parallel between the fugitive leader of Tibet and Mahatma Gandhi, leader of the Indian independence movement. In fact, there can’t be any comparison between a crypto-monarch completely immersed in royal comfort and Bollywoodlike-splendor and the greatest revolutionary saint ever born in the history of human beings. If Gandhi can be compared with anyone, it is only with the Buddha and Jesus. Any attempt at comparing the Dalai Lama with Gandhi is a direct affront to the latter’s sacrifice for the uplift of humanity. No doubt, the Dalai Lama, like scores of Buddhist scholars, has a profound knowledge of Buddhism. His authority over that philosophy certainly deserves due appreciation. Just because the Dalai Lama has been awarded the Nobel prize and is honorably received by the Western goverments, one cannot put him at par with Gandhi, Jesus and the Buddha. In order to elevate himself the Dalai Lama should start by sincerely internalizing the agony and trauma of the Tibetans who are prepared to die for their motherland.

By eklabya, 05-12-08, 04:38 AM