NEPAL: Dissolution of paradise



FROM THE GUARDIAN, UK

BY ISABEL HILTON


Isabel Hilton
It’s not easy being Nepal. Ranked among the 48 least-developed countries, sandwiched between the emerging Asian giants India and China, ruled by a chaotic government that struggles to normalise the country in the aftermath of a nine-year Maoist insurgency, plagued by endemic corruption and the growing impacts of climate change in the Himalayas, Nepal has a lot on its plate. Now, though, the growing influence of China has added regional rivalries to the government’s problems.

Last week, exiled Tibetans across the world celebrated their 49th Democracy Day, marking the effort to establish democratic management of their own affairs. In Kathmandu, this resulted in the detention of nine Tibetan demonstrators in Boudanath, in the outskirts of the city, close to one of the main Tibetan refugee settlements. For good measure, a Tibetan woman and child were detained some 10 miles away – on the grounds, according to police, that they were “walking in the direction” of Boudanath.

The demonstration was peaceful and, in this recently minted Nepalese democracy, it’s hard to see whom it offended – except for the high-level Chinese delegation staying at the nearby Hyatt hotel. And that, of course, is the point. Nepal has traditionally been under the influence of India, with which it shares strong cultural ties and a long, open border. Many of Nepal’s political parties have close links with Indian counterparts and, when things go wrong between the two, landlocked Nepal can be reminded that most of its vital supplies reach it courtesy of its southern neighbour. Any obstruction to the supply route swiftly causes problems.

China, until recently, was a lesser player: the border is mountainous and though there are historic cultural and trade links with Tibet, and Nepal, like India, is host to a substantial population of Tibetan refugees, Nepal has not historically been dependent on China’s goodwill. Now it is flexing its muscles in Nepal, and its target is the Tibetan refugee community. Tibetan demonstrations in Nepal, Beijing argues, are “insulting” to Beijing, and Nepal’s open border with India, it claims, is a security risk to China. Last month Nepalese security officials were summoned to the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, to listen to a long list of Chinese complaints. As a result, security along the Chinese-Nepal border has been stepped up. In February 2008, just be fore the March uprising in Tibet, Chinese officials and Nepalese police raided a UN-run refuge in Kathmandu to arrest a Tibetan fugitive whom the Chinese accused of murder. The fugitive has not been heard of since. Now Beijing is pressing for an extradition treaty with Nepal.

Chinese security officials now regularly operate on the Nepalese side of the border. Since the Tibetan uprising Chinese operations inside Nepal have become more conspicuous. As a result of the tightening of border security, the refugee flow into Nepal from Tibet has dropped from about 2,500 a year to only 500 since March last year, despite continuing repression inside Tibet.

Since 1990, the Nepalese government has not allowed Tibetans to register as refugees but it has continued to offer an important transit route to India. Now, under Chinese pressure, the options for Tibetans are being closed off. Even third country offers are affected: the US government has offered visas to 5,000 Tibetan refugees. Bizarrely, Nepal will not let them leave.
Increasingly their options are shrinking in Nepal too. Tibetan refugees cannot legally own property, travel, go to university, drive cars or own businesses. Despite their long presence in the country, they cannot register their Nepal-born children. Forced into unofficial arrangements to survive, they become easy targets for extortion by everyone from the police to political parties in search of funds. Chief among these are the Maoists, whose exorbitant demands have bankrupted many Tibetan businesses.

The Tibetans are the world’s second oldest refugee community after the Palestinians. Historically India and Nepal have been sympathetic hosts, despite their own domestic difficulties. Today, under Chinese pressure, that is changing. After more than 50 years, the prospects for what have been hardworking and self-reliant communities are being choked off, even as conditions in their homeland deteriorate. Local media in Kathmandu have published highly implausible stories of preparations by the Tibetans, supported by the ambassadors of the US and several EU countries, for the armed overthrow of the government in Beijing. Nepal is using internal security legislation to detain Tibetans on flimsy pretexts. Deprived of civil rights, livelihoods and passports, their savings exhausted by extortion, the refugees look increasingly vulnerable.

Low-level tensions between China and India are played out regularly across the Himalayas, through incursions across disputed borders and Chinese attempts to block infrastructure development in Indian territory. It is all part of a serious but controlled regional rivalry. But for the vulnerable Tibetan refugees, China’s increasing reach into Nepal threatens to leave them nowhere to run.


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