Kathmandu: Around 80 Tibetan protesters shouting "stop the killing in Tibet" were hauled away in police vehicles and detained after demonstrating outside the Chinese embassy in Nepal's capital today.

Around 100 police officers broke up the rally by dragging the demonstrators, who let their bodies go limp, into waiting police trucks and vans. "We have detained some 80 Tibetan protesters," said a police officer outside the Chinese mission, asking not to be named.

The protesters waved flags of the Tibetan government in-exile and shouted "stop killing in Tibet" and "UN we want justice" as they were being rounded up. Kathmandu has seen almost daily protests outside UN offices and the Chinese embassy by Tibetan exiles demanding that the world body probe the causes of violent anti-Chinese unrest that has shaken their Himalayan homeland.

Throughout the protests, Tibetans have been detained and released hours later. Human rights organisations, including the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, have said Nepal should respect the exiles right to protest. Sandwiched between regional giants India and China, Nepal recognises China's official policy that Tibet and Taiwan are indivisible parts of China.

At last 20,000 Tibeans live in Nepal and every year around 2,500 of them sneak across the Himalayas to Kathmandu. Many travel on to Dharmshala in northern India, home to Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lma, who fled his homeland in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule.

Source : PTI