KATHMANDU, March 17 - In what is seen as the UN’s curbed double speaking HR stance and weak ability to handle international human rights protests in Kathamndu, the new UN resident coordinator in Kathmandu, Robert Piper, had little help to offer the hundreds of Tibetean protesters in front of the UN office in Kathmandu except to release a bland statement “At no time have police been requested by the UN to intervene in peaceful protests in front of UN House.” Mr. Robert Piper the person who made this statement, though a UN civil servant, is considered by Nepali media hands as quite close to the Clinton camp, and once served as his Chief of Staff under the Tsnunami project. Many felt that the freshly arrived UN diplomat was merely circumventing the issue and did not want to involve the UN in the free Tibet movement. The U.S. has been strongly advocating to open up Tibet more to freedom and democracy throughout the Bush administration, more than any previous U.S. government.
The Robert Piper statement was taken with a bit of surprise by the Kathmandu diplomatic community, given the strong momentum the Tibetean protests have taken before the Beijing Olympics. The Chinese government has for long anticipated such protests but not in this form and so widespread. The repression now seems to have backfired. The Dalai Lama has already given a statement that his government does not tolerate repression of the Tibetean people. Thus, that the Nepali police is coming so heavily upon the peaceful Tibetean community in Kathmandu is taken with a pinch of salt. Madhav Kumar Nepal head of the Communist Party of Nepal has already given the first diplomatic support to the one-China policy, which has kept the Chinese Embassy happy. The Nepal Government has steadfastly stood by this foreign policy edict, though thousands of Nepalis live in Taiwan as well, the other “China” .
The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, headed by Richard Bennett a New Zealander coming from Edmund Hillary country has been more bold, ““I urge the Nepal Government to respect its obligations under international human rights law and to uphold the fundamental rights to peaceful assembly and freedom of expression.”
The Nepal Police had come down excessively on nearly 2,000 Tibetans marching down to the Chinese Embassy in Kathmandu in a torch light procession from Bouddha a few days back. The Free Tibet Movement which is long represented by Maurya Moynihan, the charismatic, vivacious, ebullient Buddhist, songstress, kathak dance expert, and beloved daughter of powerful late U.S. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a true well wisher of India and Nepal, must have completely felt baffled. The Carter Center which has got its omnipresent electoral presence all over Nepal msut have felt even more bewildered. The American quest to see freedom reign amongst all peoples of the world, their human rights upheld, and their right to choose independence steadfastly, has so far failed reaching the Tibetean people. They are now facing sticks and bullets. Such harm coming their way in Lhasa and Kathamndu has become more the norm of the day.
The Chinese population in Tibet though small is known to enjoy better living standards than the Tibetans. However it would be fair say to state that China has developed Tibet at par with itself and runs an expensive fully acclamatized high altitude train that traverse the Beijing-Lhasa route at some point reaching 17,000 feet above sea level. The service has brought in hundreds of thousands of western tourists from Beijing, and cost the Chinese government US$ 8 billion to build and seven years to complete.
Earlier, tourists usually used to cross into Tibet from the Nepali border. Right now, the Nepal-China border is completely sealed off and nearly two dozen Chinese plain clothes police are on active duty on the Nepalese side of the border closely monitoring any infiltration or unusual activities on the Kodari road. So far there have been no protests. The Chinese side of the border is also completely sealed off to prevent tourists or Nepali traders from crossing into Tibet.
Nepal and China enjoy excellent relations, and the Chinese government knows all too well, that no foreigners from the Nepali side of the border have posed any threat to Chinese governance including over Tibet. Nepal-China trade through Lhasa reaches billions of rupees each year. While China has known to express its uneasiness in the past few months over mounting UN activities which it sees as EU dominated, and also is guarded against building U.S. and Indian presence in Kathamndu, it had never reacted seriously to the Tibetean issue in Kathmandu. In fact, it has been offering Tibetans normal visa services and other assistance which is quite surprizing.
Senior Nepali media personalities close to the UN were quick to point out that the UN OHCHR ought to do more than just issue a statement, since it had taken out huge protest notes and held press conferences, when headed by Ian Martin during Jan Andoland-2 period. Right now it appears it is not being able to support the Tibetean people’s human rights. Moreover the police resorted to lathi-charging and tear-gassing innocent protesters fighting for their legitimate rights in Lhasa and elsewhere. “The right to peaceful assembly as well as the right to freedom of expression are guaranteed under international law. However, on at least two occasions the exercise of these rights appears to have been unduly restricted,” the bland OHCHR statement read. It failed to defend human rights of Tibetans openly.
Free Tibet Movement which has long been linked to promoting human rights and democracy in Tibet is supported by super stars like Maurya Moynihan, Richard Gere, and Bono from U2, all bastions for global freedom and human rights, particularly Tibetans. They are linked to the Dalai Lama’s Dharma Shala ashram in propounding the good words of Lord Buddha globally in the cause of universal peace, prosperity freedom and music. It might help the Chinese government to present a more positive image globally in light of the Beijing Olympics, if it relaxed such heavy weight pressure on the Tibetans and solved the issues more amicably through talks. Using physical assault on the innocent and peaceful protesters in Kathmandu will give Beijing a wrong impression in the international community and more cause for media attack.
Meanwhile the UN has assured the Nepali media of more positive action, “OHCHR is seeking clarification from the Government about the instructions given to police as well as the apparent excessive use of force by police officers against protesters. The Office’s human rights officers will continue to monitor events and interview individuals involved, including those injured by the use of force.”
It would be strongly recommended that the UN do something more urgent than pass further rhetoric down the Nepalese government channels, it must show demonstrable guts. Mr. Richard Bennett, Representative of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, must ably demonstrate that the standards of human rights protection apply as much to Tibetans as Nepalis. He must be forthright in being able to criticize Chinese human rights abuses restrictions on Tibetans just like the Bush administration has on earlier occasions. There must be some light at the end of the tunnel for the Tibetean people.
('Dywn' Bishnu Sapkota is a Law Student graduate from TU and works in multimedia communications production and photo media coverage with a prominent Kathmandu companies and internatiional press).
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5 comments:
Bhutan kicked out a bunch of people and they languished in Nepal for over a decade. Because Jigme Singhe Wangchuk is so close to India, our government was helpless.
China takes over Tibet and Nepal is flooded with Tibetan refugees. Nepal can't do anything because god forbid, speaking up and supporting the Tibetans would bring the wrath of China on the government.
This is the hypocricy my friends. No international actor including the US will raise its voice in criticism of China. Forget about Nepal's civil society... unless instigated by India to do so.
Who is this Bishnu Sapkota ? His comments on UNMIN may be fine but not about the Tibetian issue. When India does not dare to confront China how can Nepal do so ? All Tibetians may revolt about the Tibetian issue but how many of them will want to go and live there? Has this idiot ever mentioned the problems concerning the Bhutanese issue, the UNMIN inefficiency regarding control of Maoist weapons and combatants and the violence metted by the Maoist combatants as YCL due to lack of UN supervision ?
Anonymous at 5.36 pm - you should not be too harsh on this baje. The poor fellow is just trying to get noticed. If you look at his piece on UNMIN, it looks on the surface like criticism of the outfit, but in reality just reiterates what UNMIN has put out through its press relations hacks. So if this baje is not already a UNMIN mininon, he sure is trying to be one. The same goes for the Tibetan issue - if not UNMIN, why not OHCHR?
Must everything tie back to caste? Is the writer's criticism related to caste? Is UNMIN caste bound or are we Nepalis caste bound?
Get your head out of your *ss and think for once.
Whereas Anon at 10:00 PM may have prejudices about bajes and Anon at 11:22 PM may have preference for *ss, don’t issues like UNMIN & Tibet deserve better? People – let’s opt for dispassionate analysis and discussion, rise above petty likes and dislikes and eschew infantile tantrums.
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