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Nepal PM urged to protect the rights of Tibetan refugees

By Lobsang Wangyal | Tibet Sun

Chief of India’s ruling Congress party Sonia Gandhi (R) shakes hands with Nepal’s new Maoist Prime Minister Prachanda as his wife Sita (C) watches before their meeting in New Delhi 15 September 2008. Prachanda arrived in New Delhi on Sunday seeking to allay fears that Kathmandu would now move closer to China, dumping its traditional friendship with India.Reuters/India

Prachanda arrived in New Delhi on Sunday on his first visit here as the prime minister of Nepal. Main items among the topics for discussion with India were contentious water treaties and trade issues.

The Asian Centre for Human Rights has urged Prachanda to protect the rights of the Tibetan refugees in Nepal and refrain from deporting any Tibetan refugees to China. If Nepal goes ahead with the plan to deport Tibetans, about 6,000 Tibetan refugees are at risks of being deported, according to the rights group, based in Delhi.

“Nepal has turned into a poodle of China,” says Suhas Chakma, the Director of the centre.

In recent months Tibetans in Nepal have been staging near-daily demonstrations in Kathmandu against the Chinese crackdown on protests in Tibet in March.

Nepal’s move to deport Tibetans is seen as an attempt to please China by discouraging the exiles from organising anti-China protests. Altogether 132 Tibetan activists have been arrested since 9 September after they demonstrated outside the Chinese consulate in Kathmandu.

About 30% of the 20,000 Tibetan refugees living in four camps in Pokhara, Nepal, entered there illegally or were never granted a refugee certificate, and face imprisonment and deportation in an attempt to satisfy China.

“As a ratifying party to the UN Convention Against Torture (CAT), Nepal has the legal obligation to ensure that no Tibetan refugee is repatriated to China where they face the risks of torture, and of inhumane and degrading treatment,” Chakma says. Article 3(1) of the CAT prohibits expulsion, return (“refouler”) or extradition of any person to any State where there are substantial grounds for believing that s/he would be in danger of being subjected to torture.

The rights group also stated that a number of Maoists cadres were extradited by India to Nepal, and that they were subjected to torture by the Royal Nepal Army.

It has also urged the prime minister to respect human rights and fundamental freedoms, including the right to peaceful freedom of association and assembly of all refugees in Nepal.

Prachanda visited China soon after taking office in August and reaffirmed Nepal’s one-China policy when he met Chinese President Hu Jintao.

In India on Monday, he met the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the Congress party President Sonia Gandhi. He is returning home to Nepal on Thursday.

Copyright © 2008 Tibet Sun

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