Tibetan protesters baton-charged

2008-03-30 16:42

Kathmandu - Police in Nepal on Sunday baton-charged protesters, most of them Tibetans, who were rallying outside a Chinese embassy office in Kathmandu, detaining more than 100 people, police and witnesses said.

A few of the demonstrators were injured, police said, without giving a precise number.

Police hit protesters with long bamboo poles before dragging dozens of them into waiting vans as they tried to protest outside the office, which is separate from the main Chinese embassy in Kathmandu, witnesses said.

Shouting "Stop violence and murder" and "Free Tibet", some protesters were kicked while on the ground by police before being taken away, an AFP reporter witnessed.

"We want the Chinese administration to let journalists enter Tibet and stop violence against Tibetans," Tenzing, a 28-year-old monk, told AFP as he waved the flag of the Tibetan government in-exile before being taken away by police.

'If I were younger'

Police officer Surendra Rai told AFP: "We have detained some 113 Tibetan protesters. A few who were injured are getting treatment."

"We will release all those detained this evening," Rai added.

"Chinese undemocratic rule is sickening. If I were younger, I would join in the protest," said one 78-year-old Tibetan, Bhakta Bahadur Lama, as demonstrators were shoved into police vans and trucks.

"The situation is getting worse and worse there now. The monasteries are gone and so is the culture and language."

Kathmandu has seen almost daily protests since demonstrations against China's rule of Tibet began in the region's capital Lhasa on March 10, the anniversary of a failed 1959 uprising.

Nepal - home to at least 20 000 Tibetan exiles - officially recognises Beijing's "One China" policy, under which Tibet is considered an integral part of the country.

- AFP