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Tibetan detainees deported under Chinese pressure

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TCHRD Press Release Contact person: Norzin Dolma / Tenzin Norgay
Phone no: +91 1892 223363/225874
E-mail: dsala@tchrd.org

Tibetan detainees deported under Chinese pressure

Dharamsala, 31 May 2003: According to confirmed information received by the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD), the 18 Tibetan detainees were deported from Nepal to Tibet under pressure from the Chinese Embassy in Nepal. At 6 a.m. this morning, police officers from Hanuman Dhoka District Police Station forcefully led the group into a police van. It is reported that the group resisted but were overpowered by police who lifted the detainees and pushed them into the van.

The group was driven to Police Club near Immigration Department where a Chinese Embassy van was already waiting to pick them up. Reportedly the number plate of the embassy van was covered and the windows curtained. Three foreign correspondents have apparently followed the embassy van when it left the Police Club. The van headed off towards Dram (Nepal-Tibet border) where the group will be handed over to the Chinese border security personnel.

Tashi, who was transferred to Central Badhra Jail after a brief imprisonment in Dilli Bazaar Jail, was also deported taking the total number to 18. He was brought to Hanuman Dhoka Police Station at 6 p.m.last evening. The 18 Tibetans consisted of the 17 detainees from Dilli Bazaar Jail and one from Central Bhadra Jail.

The deported Tibetans are Yeshi, 13 (F), Tenzin Nyima 14 (M), Rinchen Dhondup 14 (M), Gyaltsen Wangchuk 14 (M) Lobsang Jampa 16 (F), Yoten 17 (F), Rinzin Dolma 17 (F), Tsultrim Gyatso 17 (M), Thupten Tsering 18 (M), Kelsang Wangdue 19 (M), Tashi Choedon 19 (F), Lobsang Phuntsok 21 (M), Tashi 22 (M), Lobsang Tenpa 23 (M), Yeshe Sangpo 23 (M), Lobsang 25 (M), Lobsang Tenphel 28 (M) and Gelek 30 (M). The three other minors — Tenzin Dolkar, 6 (f), Lobsang Dawa, 6 (m), and Passang Diki, 9 (f) — who are under the care of TRRC are last reported to have not been taken with the group.

Nine out of the 18 detainees are reportedly juveniles between 13 to 18 years. The fact the current deportation involves minors is in direct contravention of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), to which Nepal is a signatory. Article 22 of the CRC specifically states, “State Parties shall take appropriate measures to ensure that a child who is seeking refugee status … receive appropriate protection and humanitarian assistance in the enjoyment of applicable rights set forth in the present Convention…” Article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) provides for “everyone the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.”

TCHRD believes that the current deportation of Tibetans with the direct intervention and at the behest of Chinese officials is the first of its kind. In June 1995, Nepali police forcefully deported 39 Tibetans to Tibet but at the time, no pressure was applied by China. The 39 Tibetans were detained for several days in a detention centre in Dram and then at various detention centres while on their way to Lhasa. Since their return to Tibet, these Tibetans have been kept under constant scrutiny and surveillance by Chinese authorities. They live a life bound by “invisible chains”.

According to the Nepali Immigration Act of 1992, Article 3.1 stipulates “No foreigner shall be allowed to enter into and stay in the Kingdom of Nepal without obtaining a passport and visa.” In the case of transgressions of this article, procedures are in place to deal with the accused. The Immigration Officer, under Article 8.2 of the Immigration act, must open an investigation pursuant to any contraventions of this act. Once an investigation is opened, the Immigration officer has the power to “record statements of the accused person, and keep him on parole, release him against surety or bail, or keep him in detention for not more than 25 days with the permission of the Court if there exist reasonable grounds for doing so.”

There is a caveat inscribed in Article 8.2 a that allows for sustained detention if the required surety or bail cannot be paid, however, in the case of these 17 Tibetans who could not initially pay the bail, they were given sentences ranging from three to ten months. When the representatives of the TRRC of Kathmandu came to pay the fines for their release, the officials of the Chinese Embassy thwarted the efforts demanding custody and deportation of the Tibetans.

When bail is met, by law the detained must be released, and that a request for deportation by foreign officials, unless in the case of extradition treaties, is not provided for. In order for any foreigner in violation to be deported, the Immigration Officer must submit a report to the Director General, who then must gain the approval of His Majesty’s Government (HMG) to deport the foreigner.

TCHRD is gravely concerned about these bizarre transgressions of Nepali law. Nowhere in Nepali law does it categorize transgressors of the Immigration Act as criminals, yet the Tibetans were transferred to Hanuman Dhoka District Police Station, where they were placed with ordinary criminals, and with the information available at this time, the sequence of events that has unfolded with regard to the Tibetans in the last two days does not bear any resemblance to measures prescribed in Nepali law.

Although Nepal Government has no official refugee policy, TCHRD considers deportation of the Tibetans as a breach of the usual procedure and adherence to the “Gentlemen’s Agreement” of 1989 between the Nepali Government, UNHCR and Tibetan government-in-exile for safe transit of the Tibetan refugees to India. Nepal is not a signatory to the Geneva Convention on Refugees, but it is a state party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and to its First and Second Optional Protocols. Therefore, it is bound to protect and safeguard the right of the Tibetan refugees to seek refuge from persecution.

TCHRD is appalled that Chinese Government has invaded domestic procedures to exert pressure directly on Nepal with the aim of depriving the Tibetans of their fundamental rights and freedom. Nepal’s bilateral relations with China have dictated Nepal’s policies towards refugees. It is ironical that Tibetan refugees are now being deported to a country from where they escaped persecution. TCHRD is gravely concerned about the fate of the 18 Tibetans since they are likely to face severe repercussions for their acts of “treason”.

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