Tibetans resume protests in Nepal, 72 held

Tuesday, September 09, 2008

KATHMANDU (Reuters) - Nepali police detained 72 Tibetan exiles as they tried to storm a Chinese consular office in Kathmandu on Tuesday, resuming anti-Beijing protests after a brief lull.

Refugees got down from public buses near the walled premises of a visa office of the Chinese embassy, but were stopped by police from marching ahead.

Protesters, including nuns and monks demanding human rights in Tibet, then squatted and slept on the road before being picked up by police and hauled into trucks.

"If there is the word human rights in the United Nations dictionary it should be put into practice in Tibet," the Tibetan Volunteers Group in Nepal said in a leaflet distributed during the protests.

Impoverished Nepal considers Tibet as part of China, its influential neighbour and key donor as well as trade partner, and does not allow Tibetans to engage in anti-China activities.

Yet the exiles have been organising regular protests since the crackdown by China on protests in Lhasa and neighbouring areas in March.

More than 20,000 exiles have been living in Nepal since fleeing their homes after a failed uprising against Beijing in 1959.