KATHMANDU, March 14: Tibetan refugees living in Nepal along with some foreigners staged demonstration in front of the Chinese Embassy’s visa section at Hattisar on Saturday to mark the anniversary of 2008 Chinese crackdown in Lhasa. The protest was staged at about 2 pm. Police arrested two Westerners soon after they began the demonstration. [break]
Zakaria Zainal
Protests at Bouddhanath
Tibetans in Kathmandu tried to stage a protest at Bouddhanath amidst overwhelming police presence at about 3 p.m.
Tibetan protestors circled several times the sacred area of Bouddhanath stupa shouting anti-China slogans. They came in close proximity with the police only once in a small exit near Samten Ling Monastery on the stupa premises.
According to Apa, a 37-year-old Tibetan, the original plan was to stage protest at the Chinese Embassy’s visa section at Hattisar. However, police prevented the protest by stopping buses and taxis and asking for identification to those who looked like Tibetans, said the carpet factory worker. “We will try again,” said a determined Apa, who said the protests are conducted to commemorate those who had died for the Tibetan cause.
Zakaria Zainal
No one was arrested from the protest in Bouddha.
China says 22 people, mostly Chinese civilians, died in the riot, and though it has acknowledged deaths elsewhere, a full tally has never been provided.
The Dalai Lama´s exiled government in India says 220 Tibetans died and nearly 7,000 were detained.
(Additional reporting by Zakaria Zainal.)