Nearly 1,400 detained in anti-China protests in Nepal (Roundup)

Aug 8, 2008, 10:48 GMT

Kathmandu - Nepalese police on Friday detained nearly 1,400 Tibetan exiles participating in anti-China protests in Kathmandu on the day the opening day of the Beijing Olympic Games.

The arrests came after small groups of Tibetans gathered near the consular section of the Chinese embassy in central Kathmandu the entire day, defying a government ban on protests in the area.

Many protestors, wearing 'Free-Tibet' T-shirts and with their faces painted with the national flag, chanted anti-China slogans and called for human rights in Tibet.

The police stopped the protestors several hundred metres from the embassy office and bundled them into waiting trucks to be driven off to detention centres.

'The protests are to draw the world attention to the situation in Tibet,' said a protest organizer who did not wish to be named. 'We want restoration of human rights in Tibet as well as religious freedom.'

As one group of protestors was loaded unto trucks, another group appeared to continue the demonstrations.

The Nepalese police had trouble holding back protestors after they converged on the area from several directions.

'We have detained over 1,380 Tibetans for violating government orders that ban protest in the area,' Kathmandu district police office said. 'The protestors are being held in several police stations across the city.'

'Despite arresting so many refugees, they still keep coming,' said Kumar Dangol, a police officer deployed near the Chinese embassy office.

The Nepalese government had beefed up security around the Chinese embassy consular section, expecting protests coinciding with the Olympics.

Hundreds of police in riot gear ringed the building and blocked off routes that led to the Chinese embassy visa office.

Friday's demonstrations came a day after Tibetan exiles organized the biggest anti-China protest in Nepal since they began in March. It drew nearly 2,000 participants.

Nepal has come under growing criticism over its handling of the Tibetan protests. Human rights organizations said thousands of Tibetans have been arrested since they began.

The Nepalese government, which recognizes Tibet as an integral part of China, said it would not allow anti-China protests in the country because it would effect its relations with its northern neighbour.

Nearly 20,000 Tibetans are officially listed as refugees in Nepal. However, several thousand more have not been given that status after the government stopped recognizing arrivals after 1989 as refugees.

Human rights organizations said an estimated 3,000 Tibetans cross the Himalayan passes each year into Nepal, risking their lives to escape Chinese rule in Tibet.