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REFUGEES: Tibetans Survive Border Guards, Reach Nepal Capital

Marty Logan

KATHMANDU, Oct 9 2006 (IPS) - A group of 43 Tibetans shot at by a Chinese border patrol while trying to cross into Nepal, was to arrive in the capital late Monday, according to the United Nations.

At least one woman, a nun in her mid-20s, was reported killed in the incident Sep. 30, which was witnessed by scores of climbers in the area near Mt Cho Oyu, about 20 km west of Mt Everest on the Nepal-China border.

China invaded Tibet in 1950 and considers it an integral part of its territory, and the government suppresses local culture in the region, including language and religious education. As a result, an average of 2,500 Tibetans yearly try to cross the Himalayan border into Nepal en route to Dharamsala, India, home of the Tibetan government in exile led by the Dalai Lama.

Many are stopped and most face human rights abuses and other hardships, says a soon to be released report by a team of doctors.

At least 70 people were in the group that tried to enter Nepal at Langpa Pass, according to a report on the website of the International Campaign for Tibet. A British mountain guide, who was climbing Cho Oyu at the time, told the group: “There could have been as many as 60 climbers at Advance Base Camp who witnessed the incident. They could see Chinese soldiers quite close to the camp kneeling, taking aim and shooting, again and again, at the group, who were completely defenceless.”

“Tibetans travelling with the nun were unable to bring her body, with evident wounds from several rounds of bullets, with them because they feared arrest before entering Nepalese territory,” the website said, quoting eyewitnesses.

An official at the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Kathmandu said it had received an account of two deaths. “We are investigating the allegations and trying to get direct eye witness accounts of what happened. Once we have the facts, we will be raising this issue with the Chinese authorities,” the official told IPS.

“We’ve already sent someone to accompany the (refugees) and expect them in Kathmandu by the end of the day,” added the official.

The fate of the others in the group is unknown, a Tibetan who works with refugees in the capital, told IPS. “I think they were caught,” added the man who asked to remain unidentified. “Unless they show up here we have no mechanism to monitor their trip.”

About 20,000 Tibetan refugees live permanently in Nepal but they have no legal status since the government has not signed the international refugee convention.

In 1989, the government and UNHCR concluded the so-called “gentleman’s agreement”, agreeing that all new arrivals from Tibet would use Nepal for transit only to a third country.

In 2005, the government closed the Tibetan Refugee Welfare Office and the office of the Dalai Lama’s representative in Kathmandu.

Most refugees now stay at a reception centre in the capital for a couple of weeks before leaving for India, said the Tibetan man.

Two years ago a group of researchers interviewed 50 refugees staying at the centre. They “experienced physical and mental hardships and, often, human rights abuses on their journey to Nepal,” says their report.

On average they travelled 34 days from Tibet to Nepal, both by foot and by bus. Most carried little food for fear of arousing suspicion so had to go hungry for days or resorted to begging when their supplies ran out, says the report ‘Dangerous Journey: Documenting the Experience of Tibetan Refugees’, published in the November issue of the American Journal of Public Health.

Twenty-three refugees encountered Nepalese border guards, adds the report. “Twenty refugees suffered physical abuse by the border guards, and all of these individuals were threatened with refoulement (being returned to China). Several refugees also experienced severe hardships such as robbery and torture, beatings with rifle butts and threats of being shot.Three women also experienced sexual harassment by the Nepalese guards.”

The two refugees captured by Chinese authorities were treated harshest, adds the report. They were transferred among six prisons during a month-long detainment, beaten and deprived of food.

“They beat us all regularly,” a 15-year-old refugee girl told researchers. “All the men were bedridden for seven days because they were beaten so badly. The women were isolated and pricked with needles on the back and private areas. Some women had difficulty urinating after the beatings.”

Although none of the refugees interviewed had been shot at, an author of the report told IPS he was not surprised to hear of last month’s incident. “It is not the first report of shootings at the refugees. Several years ago, it was reported by climbers that Chinese soldiers had crossed into Nepal in following refugees and that gun shells were found in Nepal,” said Edward J Mills of the department of clinical epidemiology and biostatistics at McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada.

“There is reason to believe that the human rights and health situation for Tibetans remains dire,” added Mills in an email interview. “The UNHCR should pressure the Chinese to respond to their obligations under international and domestic Chinese law to respect refugees and prevent torture and arbitrary detention.”

An official in the political section of the Embassy of China in Nepal told IPS on Monday that he had read media reports of the incident but did not know if they were being probed by the Chinese government.