download the report - International Campaign for Tibet

International Campaign for TibetMay 1, 2003IntroductionFleeing TibetNepal’s Changing WelcomeTransiting NepalThe UNHCR in KathmanduTibetans Residing in NepalChina’s Growing InfluenceEntering IndiaRight of ReturnRecommendations and BenchmarksEndnotes1281214161819202124CONTENTSThe report that follows is intended as a 2002 addendum to DangerousCrossing: Conditions Impacting the Flight of Tibetan Refugees in 2001.To produce this update, ICT has drawn on new information from its fieldand US staff gathered first-hand in Nepal, India and inside Tibet, as wellas from relevant departments of the Central Tibetan Administration ofHis Holiness the Dalai Lama, the US State Department and Congress,the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and theregional media.While presenting an updated description of the circumstances confrontingTibetan refugees in flight and in exile in the context of the 2001 report,the 2002 report examines enduring problems that have yet to beaddressed by concerned parties. In some cases, new information hasclarified a perceived trend or shift in policy. Overall, the 2002 reportserves as a “report card” of policies and practices that continue to makethe Tibetan refugees’ path to freedom a dangerous crossing.INTRODUCTIONAs was the case in the 2001 report, the 2002 update puts significant focuson the current situation in Nepal because of its key geopolitical role inthe safe flight, transit and refuge of Tibetans since 1959, when the firstwave of refugees followed the Dalai Lama into exile, and continuing tothis day. ICT recognizes the unsettling political and economic forces atplay in Nepal, including the disarray that followed the assassination ofthe royal family in June 2001, the indigenous Maoist insurgency, andChina’s significant influence on the Royal Nepal Government. ICT hopesthat this report will elucidate the urgent need for positive counterweightto the confluence of these forces that has put Tibetans legally residingin Nepal and those transiting through Nepal in jeopardy of suffocatingpolitical and socioeconomic restrictions and, in some cases, in peril ofarrest and deportation.1