US embassy cable - 02KATHMANDU1694

UNCLAS KATHMANDU 001694 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
STATE FOR SA/INS 
LONDON FOR POL - RIEDEL 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREF, PREL, PHUM, PGOV, NP 
SUBJECT: POLICE DISRUPT PUBLIC CELEBRATION OF TIBETAN 
DEMOCRACY DAY 
 
 
1.  (U) On September 2 local police halted the Tibetan 
community's religious celebration of Tibet's "Democracy Day" 
and detained Office of Tibet Representative Wangchuk Tsering 
and another man for several hours.  The celebration, which 
had been originally scheduled to be held on the grounds of 
the Boudhanath Stupa, was ultimately allowed to resume within 
the confines of the monastery--but without the presence of 
the Office of Tibet Representative. 
 
2.  (SBU)  Tsering told emboff he had applied for permission 
from local police to hold the "puja," or religious 
celebration, and had encountered no objection.  On the 
morning of the celebration, however, he reported 30-40 police 
were awaiting the celebrants on the grounds of Boudhanath. He 
was asked to accompany police to the local station, where the 
ranking officer explained he had been directed by the Home 
Ministry to halt the proceedings and to keep Tsering at 
headquarters till sundown.  A Tibetan man who had been 
handing out pamphlets on the grounds of the stupa was also 
detained.  Tsering said he tried to persuade the local 
authorities that the celebration was religious, rather than 
political, and to remind them that the Tibetan community had 
marked the same occasion in previous years without 
interruption.  He was not successful, and was forced to stay 
at the police station, drinking tea, making phone calls, and 
chatting with police, until he was released at 4:00 p.m. the 
same day, along with the pamphleteer. 
 
3.  (SBU)  Comment:  The lapse of a state of emergency August 
28 lifted a ban on public assemblies.  Tsering speculated 
pressure from the Chinese may have influenced the Home 
Ministry's decision to stop the public 
celebration--especially since it was allowed to continue 
inside the monastery.  The Embassy will raise this apparently 
arbitrary suppression of the right to free assembly with the 
Home Ministry and other Government officials. 
MALINOWSKI