November 15, 2011
Nepal’s Ministry of Home Affairs has just warned that the 20,000 Tibetan refugees in Nepal can expect further repressive moves against their already beleaguered community.
According to Rajdhani Daily, spokesperson Sudhir Kumar Sah of the Home Ministry issued the following statement on November 13, 2011:
The government is in a very difficult situation since the Tibetans have begun setting themselves on fire. The government of Nepal is committed on its one China policy. We will not allow any activities that go against the interest of our neighbors. This will lead to a situation where the government may have to slash all the facilities being granted to the Tibetans residing in Nepal, such as that of their freedom of movement.
Sah also warned that the government could opt to ban all Tibetan business activities.
Many assume that this latest warning is an attempt to assuage the potential misgivings of Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jaiboa, who is reportedly slated to visit Nepal in December. Obviously, if the Maoist-led government cannot guarantee Wen that his visit will be a smooth one, chances are that the visit will be aborted.
As it stands, the Tibetans are in no mood to self-censor.
For most of the year, the refugees have watched in horror as monks and nuns in Eastern Tibet have used self-immolation as a means of protesting China’s repression of Tibetan religious and cultural freedom. Eleven monastics have set themselves on fire since March, at least five of whom died in the process.
More recently, Tibetans outside of Tibet have taken up the protest. At the beginning of the month, a Tibetan exile set himself on fire outside the Chinese embassy in New Delhi before Indian police overpowered him and put out the flames.
On November 3, a Tibetan woman tried to set herself on fire in Kathmandu but was thwarted by friends.
On November 10, at the base of Kathmandu’s famous Boudhanath Stupa, where hundreds of worshippers were gathered for a religions festival, a Buddhist monk wrapped in the Tibetan flag and chanting slogans against China doused himself with kerosene and set himself on fire with a devotional lamp. Onlookers quickly extinguished the flames and whisked him away before police could arrive to arrest him.
INTERNATIONAL RESPONSE TO NEPAL’S STRANGLEHOLD ON TIBETAN COMMUNITY
Human rights groups have frequently accused Nepal of arbitrary arrests and harassment of Tibetans. In July, Nepal prevented its 20,000-strong Tibetan community from celebrating the birthday of spiritual leader the Dalai Lama.
China accuses the Dalai Lama and his supporters of encouraging followers to set themselves on fire.
In response, the Dalai Lama has denied complicity and said that China's "ruthless policy" was behind the self-immolations.
The Karmapa, Tibetan Buddhism's third-ranking leader, asked China on this week to review its policies toward Tibet in the wake of the protests against Chinese restrictions on their religion and culture. "These desperate acts, carried out by people with pure motivation, are a cry against the injustice and repression under which they live," he said.
U.S. Representative Frank Wolf weighed in on November 3 by threatening to strip Nepal of its millions of dollars in US aid unless it loosens its stranglehold on Tibetan refugee movement. Nepal is the main route for Tibetans who seek to go into exile, but the country has increasingly cracked down on Tibetans' movement and activities out of fear of upsetting its giant neighbor to the north.
Representative Wolf, who sits on the House Appropriations Committee that determines US funding, said he would try to block funding to Nepal unless it grants exit visas to Tibetans who seek refuge in the United States.
"We're not just going to cut them [Nepal], we're going to zero them out. If they're not willing to do it, then they don't share our values and if they don't share our values, we do not want to share our dollars," he told a congressional hearing on Tibet.
Wolf said he would propose the aid cutoff if Nepal's record does not improve by the time the United States looks at foreign aid funding next year.
The US Agency for International Development sought $57.7 million for Nepal in the 2010 fiscal year.
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