DANGEROUS CROSSING: - International Campaign for Tibet

DANGEROUS CROSSINGS: CONDITIONS IMPACTING THE FLIGHT OF TIBETAN REFUGEES, 2011
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bordering district of Mustang to fulfill her photography passion, carrying her
SLR camera. Maybe that is why within three months of her visit, the Chinese
ambassador reached Mustang with his own associates. He not just kept an
eye on whether there were any ‘Free Tibet movement’ going on in Mustang,
but also inquired about it with the Nepali authorities and locals.” 141 Further
stories in the Nepali media fixate on Tibetan Buddhist monasteries in Nepal
being centers for “free Tibet activities.” In December 2009, the media reported
that a National Intelligence Department (NID) report “listed 24 Buddhist
monasteries in the Kathmandu Valley as sensitive for their involvement in the
‘Free Tibet Movement’ and ‘anti- China activities’...The national spy agency
has placed seven of them on the ‘very sensitive’ list from the security point
of view. It has suggested the Home Ministry to keep tabs on altogether 43
monasteries in the capital [Kathmandu], out of 59 it studied.” 142
In response, the Nepal Buddhist Federation called the allegations “baseless,”
while noting that there was “a growing negative media campaign against
monastery institutions established in the land of Buddha’s birth and that the
state police has been unnecessarily harassing our monks and nuns,” and that
there were attempts being made in the Nepali media to “fabricat[e] false and
imaginary accusations such as storing weapons and organizing [a] so called
‘Free Tibet movement.’” 143
A strong example in 2010 of Chinese influence on the Nepali media was an
article in the Dhrishti Weekly that claimed: “Western countries are preparing
armed battle for freedom of Tibet through Nepali soil.” The article claims that
American organizations and Christian missionaries are collaborating with Tibetans
who “have been providing [sic] commando training in Chkrawat jungle
near to Dehradun, India.” It also claims that the Tibetan Refugee Welfare Office
is the Dalai Lama’s “silent embassy” which has planted “trained Tibetan
warriors” in Kathmandu. 144 While to the informed eye the article reads like a
spoof, less informed readers of the newspaper may not be able to distinguish
fact from fiction and, thus, doubt is sown about Tibetans among sections of
Nepali society.
Nepali authorities have at times used press stories as an excuse to investigate
the Tibetan community. For example, an ICT source explained that after hundreds
of Nepali Buddhists had lent their support to Tibetan protesters during
2008, Nepali police used a questionable press report about guns having been
found in Tibetan monasteries as a pretext to search monasteries for information
that the authorities suggested may have been used to “brainwash” Nepalis
into being “anti-Chinese.” No such information was found. 145