(TibetanReview.net, Feb08’22) – A Nepalese government report not likely to be published but leaked to the BBC confirms persistent reports that China had encroached into the Himalayan nation along their common border from occupied Tibet.
It is the first time there have been official claims from Nepal of Chinese interference in its territory, said the BBC report.
While Nepal’s previous, communist government, which China had helped to put together but collapsed last year, denied all encroachment reports, the new coalition government led by Nepal Congress Party, which came to power in Jul 2021, commissioned an enquiry in September, following claims that China had been trespassing in the district of Humla, in the far west of Nepal.
The border between Nepal and Chinese occupied Tibet runs for nearly 1,400 km along the Himalayan mountains. It was laid out in a series of treaties signed between the two countries in the early 1960s after China annexed Tibet.
Much of it is in remote, hard-to-reach areas. On the ground, the boundary is demarcated by a chain of pillars, set kilometres apart, the report noted.
In its report, passed to the BBC, the group has found that surveillance activities by Chinese security forces had restricted religious activities on the Nepalese side of the border in a place called Lalungjong. Most of the inhabitants in these remote border areas are ethnically Tibetan or of Tibetan origin.
The report was also stated to conclude that China had been limiting grazing by Nepalese farmers.
However, the investigators were stated to have found that the local Nepalese people were often reluctant to talk about border issues because some of them depended on continued access to Chinese markets across the border.
And the report was stated to recommend that Nepalese security forces be stationed in the area to guarantee security.