(TibetanReview.net, Mar07’20) – Succumbing to the inevitability of a crackdown, the exile Tibetan administration’s representative in Kathmandu has told Tibetans in the Himalayan nation that they should not hold any gathering to mark their 61st national uprising day against Chinese occupation of their homeland on Mar 10. It was not clear whether Nepal had ordered the issuance of the refrain notice.
“Because the Nepali government tends not to allow Tibetans to observe the Mar 10 anniversary, we are asking all Tibetans to abide by the laws of the land,” the Tibetan Service of rfa.org Mar 6 quoted Tulku Ngawang Choedrak, settlement officer of the Choejor Tibetan Refugee Settlement in Kathmandu, as saying.
“Instead, Tibetans are encouraged to perform virtuous deeds by performing prayers and religious ceremonies on the anniversary date,” he was quoted as saying in an announcement.
“In the run-up to the Mar 10 anniversary, police are deployed to various Tibetan refugee settlements around the Kathmandu Valley to inspect and keep a watch on their activities,” Choedrak has said, adding, “Security officials will also call on key figures in the refugee communities to ask about political events that may be planned.”
He has said Nepal was more tolerant if Tibetans held events related to culture and religion.
Not allowing Tibetans to engage in so-called anti-China activities has been a cornerstone of Nepal’s policy towards China for many years now. Beijing is the country’s main source of aid and investment and not allowing Tibetans to engage in “anti-China” activities has been a mantra of all its iterations of policy of good relations with it.
Under Pressure from China, Nepal stopped registering Tibetans refugees who arrive in or are born in the country a decade or so ago. It also refused to grant exit permits to Tibetan refugees when the United States offered to resettle a section of them some years ago.
