Nepal police detain 125 Tibetan protesters

Fri Jul 25, 2008 5:47pm IST

KATHMANDU (Reuters) - Nepali police said on Friday they had detained 125 Tibetan refugees, including nuns and monks, for trying to storm a Chinese consular office in Kathmandu.

Police drag a Tibetan protester during a protest near the Chinese Embassy Visa Section in Kathmandu July 25, 2008. REUTERS/Gopal Chitrakar

More than 20,000 Tibetans live in Nepal and many of the exiles have protested regularly in Kathmandu, calling for the freedom of Tibet and against the Chinese crackdown on demonstrations in the Himalayan region in March.

New York-based watchdog Human Rights Watch said on Thursday Nepal was cracking down on the Tibetan protesters under pressure from China, violating their human rights with arbitrary arrests, sexual abuse of women and beatings in detention.

Beijing rejected the charges as "groundless accusations".

Protesters said they want an "immediate end to brutal suppression of Tibetans in Tibet and unconditional release of all Tibetan political prisoners".

A police official said all the detained exiles would be freed later on Friday.

Human Rights Watch said at lest 8,350 Tibetans were arrested between March 10 and July 18, many of them more than once.

Nepal considers Tibet as part of its influential giant neighbour China and says the arrests were aimed at protecting the embassy buildings from protesters.