Nepal police detain 227 Tibetan protesters
Agence France-Presse
First Posted 18:35:00 03/31/2008
KATHMANDU -- Police detained more than 200 Tibetan protesters as they tried to rally outside a Chinese embassy building in Kathmandu on Monday.
At least 200 police officers surrounded the building and carted off the demonstrators as they appeared in small groups in the capital, an Agence France-Presse (AFP) reporter witnessed.
"A total of 227 Tibetan protesters, including 113 women, were detained Monday," Surnedra Rai, a police officer at the station where the protesters were being held, told AFP.
The detained protesters will be released later Monday, Rai added.
Some of the demonstrators sat down in front of the high-walled compound before being dragged into police vans.
"The Dalai Lama should be allowed to live in Tibet. We want a free and peaceful Tibet," Tibetan exile Sonam Chugi, 36, told AFP.
Exiled Tibetans have staged daily protests in the Nepal capital since unrest began in their Chinese-controlled homeland on March 10.
Nepal is home to about 20,000 Tibetans, who began arriving in large numbers in 1959 after a failed Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule.
Sandwiched between India and China, Nepal officially recognizes its northern neighbor's 'One China" policy, which counts Tibet as an integral part of China.
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