Police stop Dalai Lama’s Birthday
celebrations in Nepal, 30 including TSO detained
Phayul July 06, 2016Tenzin
Dharpo
DHARAMSHALA, July 6: The Songtsen
Brikuti School in Boudhanath in the Nepalese capital Kathmandu
where the Tibetan community was scheduled to celebrate the 81st
birthday of the Dalai Lama was swarmed by Nepalese police early
this morning, disrupting the celebrations and even detaining close
to 30 Tibetans including the Tibetan Settlement Officer. The
celebratory event has now been forced to cancel.
The developments come as a surprise move by the police considering
the fact that proper permission had earlier been granted by
concerned Nepalese authorities for the celebratory function,
according to a source who wish to remain anonymous. The source
further adds that, “the Police have threatened the Tibetan people
to leave the venue immediately or else face detention.” Currently,
the detained Tibetans are being held at the Brikuti Mandap police
station in Boudha area.
The Nepalese police, as seen in photos and videos circulating on
social media sites, were blocking the main gate to the school and
were seen nudging and shoving Tibetans instructing them to abandon
the event. Pema, a Tibetan youth living in Boudha who was at the
venue spoke with Phayul about the situation and described the
incident as “hellish”. “Anyone who is wearing Tibetan dress or
wearing monastic robes is detained in the vicinity. We were merely
celebrating the birthday of our beloved leader, it is not
political. Besides, the same police were smiling and accepting our
help and donations during the earth quake last year when Tibetans
and Nepalese people were working together for relief efforts in the
aftermath. What was supposed to be a joyous occasion has turned
into a sad one,” Pema lamented.
The birthday celebration is an important date in the calendar for
the Tibetans and more so for the Tibetan refugees who are
increasingly targeted by the police under pressure from
China.
The itinerary for this year’s
celebration were organized and prepared since months ago; the
stage, the program itself, an opera performance, cultural
performances and food and assortments have all gone waste, said a
Tibetan. The same source added, “The cost of the event estimated to
at least 10 lakh rupees have all gone to waste but more importantly
the psyche of the Tibetan people will never be the same again. We
now feel suffocated with the kind of restrictions meted against
us.”
Nepal which is home to more than 20,000 Tibetans who either came
across the border or were born to settlers, are finding it hard to
sustain a free and normal existence. The Nepalese government’s
treatment of the Tibetan refugees has taken a turn for the worse in
the last few years with China pumping in cheap interest loans and
relaxed FDR (Foreign Direct Investment) schemes in exchange for its
will to be imposed. China’s FDR in Nepal has shot to $128 million
in 2015 up from $24 million in 2014 besides perks such as a fleet
of Mercedes SUVs.
The Nepalese government has publicly spoken on the issue when
Nepal's foreign minister, Mahendra Bahadur Pandey, earlier during a
visit to Beijing in March, said that they, “will never allow any
forces to use Nepali territory to engage in anti-China
activity."
With China gaining the upper hand in controlling the moors in the
tiny Himalayan nation replacing India with the promise of riches,
the Tibetans who set foot on Nepalese soil decades ago are once
again subjected to thinly veiled wrath of China.