South Asia News
Tibetans demonstrate in Kathmandu to mark Uprising Day
By DPA
Mar 10, 2007, 11:43 GMT

Kathmandu - Hundreds of Tibetans demonstrated in the Nepalese capital Kathmandu Saturday calling for a free Tibet and an end to Chinese rule in their homeland.

The demonstrators, numbering about 500, carried banners and placards condemning 'Chinese rule and abuses in Tibet' and marched for nearly three kilometres from their traditional settlement in Boudha on the eastern edge of Kathmandu city.

The protestors, who included Tibetan schoolchildren, monks and youths, were stopped about 500 metres short of the Chinese embassy.

The protestors and police were involved in minor scuffles but there were no injuries or arrests.

This is probably the first time in Nepal that the Tibetan protests to mark Tibet Uprising Day have been allowed so close to the Chinese Embassy.

In the past, such demonstrations were dealt with by the Nepalese authorities as soon as they started.

Nepal has a large Tibetan population who mainly came as refugees in the late 1950s and 1960s. The majority of them were given Nepalese citizenship and settled in and around Kathmandu and Pokhara in west Nepal.

Organizations working for Tibetan refugees in Nepal say nearly 2,000 Tibetans take great risks to cross the Himalayan mountain range into Nepal each year to escape Chinese occupation.

Although Nepal officially recognizes Tibet as part of China, it has allowed refugees to enter the country. However, pro-Tibetan independence activities are outlawed.

Once in Nepal, many Tibetan refugees are sent to a third country, mainly to India, where spiritual leader the Dalai Lama is based.