Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
02KATHMANDU1694
2002-09-03 12:15:00
UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
Embassy Kathmandu
Cable title:  

POLICE DISRUPT PUBLIC CELEBRATION OF TIBETAN

Tags:  PREF PREL PHUM PGOV NP 
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UNCLAS KATHMANDU 001694 

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

STATE FOR SA/INS
LONDON FOR POL - RIEDEL

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREF PREL PHUM PGOV NP
SUBJECT: POLICE DISRUPT PUBLIC CELEBRATION OF TIBETAN
DEMOCRACY DAY


UNCLAS KATHMANDU 001694

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

STATE FOR SA/INS
LONDON FOR POL - RIEDEL

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREF PREL PHUM PGOV NP
SUBJECT: POLICE DISRUPT PUBLIC CELEBRATION OF TIBETAN
DEMOCRACY DAY



1. (U) On September 2 local police halted the Tibetan
community's religious celebration of Tibet's "Democracy Day"
and detained Office of Tibet Representative Wangchuk Tsering
and another man for several hours. The celebration, which
had been originally scheduled to be held on the grounds of
the Boudhanath Stupa, was ultimately allowed to resume within
the confines of the monastery--but without the presence of
the Office of Tibet Representative.


2. (SBU) Tsering told emboff he had applied for permission
from local police to hold the "puja," or religious
celebration, and had encountered no objection. On the
morning of the celebration, however, he reported 30-40 police
were awaiting the celebrants on the grounds of Boudhanath. He
was asked to accompany police to the local station, where the
ranking officer explained he had been directed by the Home
Ministry to halt the proceedings and to keep Tsering at
headquarters till sundown. A Tibetan man who had been
handing out pamphlets on the grounds of the stupa was also
detained. Tsering said he tried to persuade the local
authorities that the celebration was religious, rather than
political, and to remind them that the Tibetan community had
marked the same occasion in previous years without
interruption. He was not successful, and was forced to stay
at the police station, drinking tea, making phone calls, and
chatting with police, until he was released at 4:00 p.m. the
same day, along with the pamphleteer.


3. (SBU) Comment: The lapse of a state of emergency August
28 lifted a ban on public assemblies. Tsering speculated
pressure from the Chinese may have influenced the Home
Ministry's decision to stop the public
celebration--especially since it was allowed to continue
inside the monastery. The Embassy will raise this apparently
arbitrary suppression of the right to free assembly with the
Home Ministry and other Government officials.
MALINOWSKI