tibet and news

By Associated Press, Published: November 1

KATMANDU, Nepal — Nepalese police detained more than 100 Tibetan exiles on Tuesday who had gathered to pray for nine Tibetans who set themselves on fire in protest against Chinese rule.


A group of Tibetans including 150 monks were holding a prayer meeting on the outskirts of Katmandu in honor of the monks, former monks and a nun who have self-immolated since March in a restive Tibetan area of western China that has been under martial law-type police controls.


Aged in their late teens and twenties, at least five died of their injuries, while the condition of the other four is not known.

An Associated Press reporter saw police in riot gear enter the prayer meeting at the Tibetan Refugee Center and pull down a banner of their exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama. This angered the Tibetans at the meeting who poured into the streets to protest. They chanted anti-China slogans calling for a “free Tibet” and for China to “leave our home.”

Police detained more than 100 protesters, who were taken away in trucks to detention centers, according to a police officer at the scene.

There have been several similar protests in the past in Nepal. The police generally don’t charge the protesters and they are usually released by nightfall.

The government has said it cannot allow protests to take place in Nepal against friendly nations, including China. Nepal is also under pressure from Chinese government to stop them.

Thousands of Tibetans live in Nepal and hundreds pass through Nepal on their way from Tibet to Dharmasala in India where the Dalai Lama lives.