NEPAL: Armed police to guard Nepal-China border

October 6, 2009

FROM PRESS.CO.NZ

Nepal will deploy armed police along its largely unguarded trans-Himalayan border with Tibet, raising criticism that the move was prompted by pressure from China against the Tibetans.

Home Minister Rawal said armed police had already been deployed along southern borders with India and the idea was to duplicate the effort in the north to secure its 1414km border with Tibet.

“Every country protects its borders. We also want to secure our borders from any trans-border movement by any criminal elements,” Rawal told Reuters. “It is not because of the insistence of any country.”

More than 20,000 Tibetans live in Nepal since fleeing their homeland in 1959 with the Dalai Lama after a failed uprising against Chinese rule. Every year nearly 2,500 Tibetans cross the Himalayas and pass through Nepal en route to India where the Dalai Lama runs a Tibetan government-in-exile.

Nepal and India share an open border, with their citizens free to travel in each other’s country without documents. Chinese nationals need a visa to travel to Nepal.

Some analysts said the move was to appease Beijing, a key donor and trading partner.

“What this reflects is China’s extreme sensitivity to the possibility of Nepal being used as a springboard for Tibetan nationalism,” said Kunda Dixit, editor of the Nepali Times weekly.
Nepal considers Tibet part of China and has arrested more than 10,000 Tibetan exiles who stage regular protests against Beijing since last year’s Chinese crackdown on protests in and around Lhasa.

“No one, especially refugees, has the right to use any sort of force or carry out any malicious, organised activities against our friendly country from our soil,” Rawal said.

The Washington-based International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) group, said in July that Kathmandu was under increasing pressure from Beijing to crack down on refugees despite centuries of shared culture with Tibet.