Nepal ignores European Union, denies rights to Tibetans living in exile

(April 13, 2011) The government of Nepal has turned a deaf ear to the European Union’s request to ensure voting rights of Tibetan refugees in exile. The European parliament on Thursday issued a statement, after France called on Nepali authorities to uphold the democratic rights of the Tibetan people in exile to elect a new government. There are some 20,000 Tibetan exiles in Nepal. Most of them escaped their homeland after China’s invasion in 1950 and the Dalai Lama’s flight in 1959. The resolution adopted by the European Parliament says that Tibetans have a right to participate in democratic rights and that this is a “fundamental right of all citizens that must be upheld, protected and guaranteed in every democratic state”. The statement notes that the Nepali government, under intense pressure from the Chinese government, has restricted the Tibetan community from taking part in the election to choose the new prime minister of the Tibetan government. The European parliament has also called on Nepali authorities to refrain from preventive arrests and restrictions on demonstrations and freedom of speech. It also asked Nepali government to include such rights and to ensure religious freedom in Nepal's new constitution, due to be enacted by 28 May 2011.
Nepal’s economic and trading ties with China have grown since the fall of the monarchy in 2006 and the rise to power of the Unified Communist Party of Nepal and the Unified Marxist–Leninist Party. The new government has reached agreements with China to allow Nepali workers in Tatopani, on the border with Tibet, in exchange for greater controls over Tibetan exiles.