RIGHTS: Uncertainty Sets in as Tibetans Lose Nepal as Safe Haven

By Damakant Jayshi Reprint | | Print |

Damakant Jayshi

KATHMANDU, Jun 3 2003 (IPS) - Kelsang, 22, says he left his monastery in Tibet after ”Chinese officials asked us to denounce the revered Dalai Lama and introduced practices in our religion that were not acceptable to us”.

He later decided to escape from Tibet, going south to Nepal, as did the other Tibetans interviewed by IPS here, such as teenage girls Metho and Penkye and three men apart from Kelsang – 22-year-old Sonam, 27-year-old Adaie and 33-year-old Karma.

All except Sonam and Kelsang arrived in Nepal in May, and Karma says he had to travel for more than two months through mountainous passes before arriving here.

Like many others before them, these Tibetans expected to be safe in this Himalayan kingdom before crossing the open border to go further south to India, where the Dalai Lama runs a government-in-exile.

But now, they are at a loss over what lies ahead for those planning to escape Tibet. To the shock of Tibetans and anger among activists here and elsewhere, 18 Tibetans – who crossed the border to Nepal on their way to India – were caught by Nepali police, then turned over to Chinese officials on Saturday.

China has claimed sovereignty over Tibet since it sent troops in 1951. But Tibet remains home to a restive population, including groups that want to separate from China and say Beijing is trying to stamp out Tibetan culture and religion. The Dalai Lama fled Tibet after a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959.

Since the weekend turnover of the Tibetans, foreign governments and rights groups have been expressing concern over the action of Nepal, located between giant neighbours China to the north and India toward the south.

In an interview, Wangchuk Tsering, the representative of the Dalai Lama in Nepal, said Kathmandu had breached a 1989 ”verbal agreement” under which it would turn over Tibetan asylum seekers to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

Under this agreement, the Tibetans were then sent to third countries, mainly India, said Tsering. His office, however, is not recognised by the Nepalese government.

The 18 Tibetans deported Saturday were among a group of 21 who arrived in Nepal on Apr. 15. They were caught by Nepalese police at Thankot, a checkpoint just 10 kilometres from the main centre of Kathmandu and handed over to the Department of Immigration.

This was not unusual as sometimes the police do nab some refugees – but they were never deported until Saturday.

The 18 Tibetans were first kept in the immigration department’s custody from Apr. 17 to May 29 before being handed over to Chinese embassy officials on May 31 – despite appeals from the 25,000-strong Tibetan community in Nepal and the UNHCR.

The remaining three in the group are children, two girls and a boy who were handed over to UNHCR.

The Nepalese government maintains that there has been no shift in policy towards ”escaping Tibetans”, and Foreign Affairs Minister Narenda Bikram Shah says Kathmandu remains ”sensitive” to them. But activists say the deportation harms Nepal’s role as a haven for refugees from neighbouring places like Tibet and Bhutan.

Cheng Ji, chief of the political and press section at the Chinese Embassy here, said that the 18, ”who are Chinese citizens, basically”, will be tried under ”our own Chinese law” for illegally crossing the international border and coming to Nepal.

Criticism was especially bitter because the Tibetan community here, with the Dalai Lama’s office in Kathmandu taking the lead, had been collecting the amount that the immigration department said the group needed to pay – 8,000 rupees (105 U.S. dollars) per head – or face a 10-month jail term for illegally crossing into Nepal.

Tsering claimed that even this fine was unheard of in the past, saying that every year 2,000 to 2,500 Tibetans make good the escape across mountain passes to Nepal.

Speaking to local press on Monday, Tsering appealed to Nepal’s government – which in recent years has had more economic, business and tourism ties with China though it has traditionally been closer to India – ”not to repeat the incident”.

Gopal Krishna Siwakoti, executive director of INHURED International, a human rights body, blasted the move: ”This has been done under Chinese pressure.” Siwakoti demanded immediate ratification by Nepal of the 1951 U.N. Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 additional protocol.

The UNHCR has termed the deportation a breach of international refugee law and a ”refoulement”.

Meantime, Nepal’s actions are confusing to Tibetans here, who say there are more like them who want to leave in search of a freer and better life and escape Chinese rule.

Metho, among the six interviewed by IPS in the Dalai Lama Representative’s office, says she has had just one year of schooling. Penkye has been to school for six years but both had to drop out, unable to pay the fees. Both want to go to Dharamsala, to study. Their parents remain in Tibet. Sonam, a university graduate, wanted to take up post-graduate studies, but says he was discriminated against by Chinese authorities in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet. ”We do not get to study according to our wish and even after completing education, jobs are difficult to get,” he said.

Sonam added that question papers in schools and colleges are designed to compel Tibetans to denounce the Dalai Lama as a reactionary and secessionist, following the Chinese government line.

Cheng, the Chinese official, says everyone in Tibet is free to practise the religion one chooses. But he said: ”We do not recognise the Dalai Lama as a spiritual or religious leader. He is merely a political exile.”

One of the asylum seekers, Adaie, came here with his eight-year-old son, but had to leave his wife behind in Tibet. ”I am worried about her and hope she too will escape and join me someday soon,” he said. Whether she will be able to do that safely, if Nepal deports more Tibetans, remains to be seen.