A month after unrest was quelled in Tibet and nearby areas, guards on both sides of the Tibet-Nepal border continue to keep the border sealed, preventing foreigners from entering and Tibetans from leaving. From AP:
After anti-government riots erupted March 14, Beijing closed off Tibet to foreign and domestic tourists and cracked down on Tibetans trying to escape. And China’s security apparatus doesn’t stop at the border.
Chinese security police in athletic wear can be seen lounging in tea shops and strolling the sole street in the border town of Liping. They shadow three Associated Press journalists from the moment they arrive, ordering them not to take photographs — on Nepalese territory.
And in the capital Katmandu, Tibetan exiles say China is pressuring the Nepalese government to crush anti-Chinese activities by the world’s second-largest Tibetan exile community.
Meanwhile, 500 Tibetans were detained in Nepal while protesting in front of the Chinese embassy in Kathmandu, AP reports. And inside China, a television reporter and singer has been detained, though the reason is not clear, reports the New York Times:
The Chinese authorities have detained a prominent Tibetan television reporter and intellectual who is also a popular singer, suggesting that the government crackdown after the disturbances in and around Tibet has yet to run its course.
The reporter, Jamyang Kyi, 42, an announcer at the state-run television station in Qinghai, a western province bordering Tibet, was escorted from her office on April 1 by plainclothes police officers in the city of Xining, according to colleagues and friends. The authorities also confiscated her computer and a list of contacts, they said…
Jamyang Kyi has avoided themes or language in her music and writings that could be construed as challenging the Communist Party’s hold over Tibet. Many ethnic Tibetans complain of government policies they say favor Chinese culture over the traditional religion and language of Tibet, an accusation Chinese officials deny.
