Dharamsala, November 26 – A delegation from the Tibetan Autonomous Region led by its executive deputy chairperson Hao Peng is currently touring Nepal where it arrived Tuesday on a five day visit.
According to Nepalese media, the visiting Chinese delegation has pledged support to Nepal on various fronts including food assistance, construction of a hydro project and Nepal’s consulate building in Lhasa. It is not known if the delegation consisted of any Tibetan members.
The 10 member delegation met Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal, Nepali Congress president Girija Prasad Koirala, deputy Prime Minister and foreign minister Sujata Koirala.
The Chinese side offered assistance for construction of a new building for Nepalese consulate in the Tibetan capital. Nepal is the only country in the world to have its consulate in the Tibetan capital.
It agreed to provide 20.4 million Nepalese rupees for the construction of the consulate building and 30.6 million Nepalese rupees for food assistance. It also agreed to fund the construction of a 20 Megawatt hydro electric project in far western Nepal.
In its meetings with Nepalese leaders the Chinese delegation inquired about the ‘political activities’ of the Tibetan exiles in Nepal which was criticized by rights group for its crackdown on Tibetan protesters last year. China sends a flurry of high-level official delegations to Nepal and repeatedly forces Nepal to curb “Free-Tibet activities” while promising assistance to the crisis-stricken country in return.
According to statistics, Nepal has more than 20,000 Tibetans refugees concentrated mainly in the Kathmandu valley and Pokhara in western Nepal. The figure does not include Tibetans who arrived in the country after 1990 because the Nepalese government stopped registering them as refugees. Estimates also suggest between 2,500 and 3,000 Tibetans escape Tibet through Nepal after a perilous journey over the Himalayas on their way to Dharamsala, the seat of Tibetan Government-in-Exile in north India.
