Senior Nepalese leader to Xi: Will repress Tibetan refugees

Chinese president Xi Jinping (right) and Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Chairman of the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) meeting in Beijing on April 18, 2013. DHARAMSHALA, April 25: A senior Nepalese leader has promised China’s President Xi Jinping that the Himalayan country will “repress” Tibetan refugees living in Nepal who are involved in free Tibet activities. Pushpa Kamal Dahal aka Prachanda, Chairman of the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) met the Chinese president on April 18 in Beijing during his week-long visit to China. According to asianews.it, Prachanda told Xi that Nepal will “stop any anti-Chinese protests, even by repressing Tibetan refugees in Kathmandu who continue to ask for a free Tibet.” “The national stability and integrity of both countries will not be compromised in the name of religious freedom and human rights.” About 20,000 Tibetans live in Nepal and yearly hundreds of Tibetans flee China occupied Tibet into exile via Nepal. Reiterating Nepal’s “firm adherence to the one-China policy,” Prachanda told Xi that only a prosperous Nepal will be able to effectively further the policy to help address China’s security concerns over Tibet. The former Nepalese prime minister reportedly sought more financial and technical support from Beijing as well as more practical cooperation between the two sides on infrastructure, water conservancy projects, and tourism. On February 13, a Tibetan monk set himself on fire near the holy stupa of Boudhanath in the heart of Nepalese capital city Kathmandu. Druptse's body was then later declared "unclaimed" and was secretly cremated by Nepalese police at Pashupatinath cremation site despite repeated appeals and protests by exile Tibetans to hand over the body. The global rights group, Human Rights Watch, in its annual report released in February cited that Nepal's failures on human rights included a lack of movement on measures to improve the rights of women, children, and Tibetan refugees. HRW accused Nepal of increasing restrictions on Tibetan refugees under pressure from the Chinese government and noted that the country continued to deny Tibetans the right to openly celebrate their holidays, including the Tibetan New Year and the Dalai Lama's birthday.