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KATHMANDU: More than 50 Tibetan exiles, including
monks and nuns, were detained Wednesday during a protest outside the
Chinese embassy in Nepal’s capital, police said.
The protesters had briefly
gathered outside the gate of the embassy compound, shouting, “Stop
the killing in Tibet” and “Free Tibet now,” an Agence France-Presse
reporter witnessed.
“We have detained 53 people for
protesting outside the embassy,” police official Babukaji Karka
said, adding that 200 officers were on duty to quell the protests.
Kathmandu has seen daily protests
since unrest in Lhasa began on March 10, the anniversary of a failed
Tibetan uprising against the Chinese in 1959.
Nepal is home to at least 20,000
Tibetans, who started arriving in considerable numbers after the
unsuccessful revolt.
International human rights groups
have urged Nepal to allow the peaceful protests and told police to
stop beating, threatening and detaining the exiled Tibetans.
Aid-dependent Nepal officially
recognizes Beijing’s “One China” policy that sees Tibet and
Taiwan as an integral part of China.
Nepalese officials have said they
will not tolerate any pro-Tibet activities out of respect for their
giant northern neighbor.
Around 2,500 Tibetans continue to
trek over the Himalayas each year to seek refugee status in Nepal
and then often travel on to the home of the exiled Tibetan spiritual
leader, the Dalai Lama, in northern India.
--AFP
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