By Kelsang Rinchen,
Phayul Reporter
Dharamsala, June 27- In an attempt to punish Nepal for deporting 18 refugees on May 31, US based Ethical Traveller Organisation and Tibet Justice Center, the authors of a key report on the refugee crisis–had earlier decided to launch a tourism boycott in Nepal.
A website nepalnews.com carried a report earlier saying that the Tourism boycott over Tibetans had been called off. Following an outcry in Nepal and outside that argued that this was an over-reaction and would hurt the Nepali economy and Tibetans living in Nepal, the boycott drive has been withheld, reported nepalnews.com.
The Ethical Travellers, however, said that it would keep highlighting the plight of Tibetan refugees deported from Nepal. ‘We have decided to withhold action on the proposed tourism boycott’, the website quoted the two organisations as saying earlier this month.
Meanwhile, Jeff Greenwald, Executive Director, US based Ethical Traveller Organisation, said ‘we haven’t formally “called off” the boycott, we are simply abiding to see how the Nepalese government proceeds from this point. As yet there is no real “pattern” of violations’.
Mr. Greenwald was responding to phayul.com before the report of today’s arrest of 19 Tibetans came.
‘I received a report from a contact in Nepal that the Nepalese are angered by the boycott or talk thereof and have started to harass Tibetans who live in Nepal by making sporadic checks of those suspected of residing illegally in Nepal, checking validity of Nepal passports of Tibetans in Nepal (and showing some to be forged), throwing some into local jails as a result, (3 so far)’, Greenwald said.
The weight of connection between the tourism boycott and these so called enraged Nepal government activities is not clear.
Whether the Tourism industry of Nepal will suffer a major blow in the days to come will depend on whether the nineteen Tibetans arrested by Nepal police will meet with the similar fate as that of the 18 Tibetans earlier repatriated.
Kathmandu is a major gateway for tourism to Tibet, and Nepal is the transit country for many young refugees fleeing Tibet for third countries. Both Ethical Traveller and the Tibet Justice Center, partners in this action, acknowledged the fact that a Tibetan monk, Shovo, was appropriately handed over to the UNHCR. In a letter written to the editor of Nepali Times, they thanked the Nepali government for this sign of humanity, and took it as a commitment to legal and ethical behaviour in the future.
Meanwhile, the Central Tibetan Administration (exile Tibetan government based in Dharamsala) issued a press release today urging the Nepali government not to hand the 19 Tibetan refugees over to China.
Kalsang Rinchen can be contacted at kalsangr@yahoo.com.
