Phayul
August 20, 2010

Dharamsala, August 20 -- The Chinese Embassy in
Nepal’s capital Kathmandu has objected to some
Constituent Assembly (CA) members of Nepal
meeting the Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama in
Dharamsala in June, reported Nepalnews.com.

The embassy has written to Nepal’s Foreign
Ministry that the CA members' meeting with Dalai
Lama was against Nepal's One China Policy.

Madhesi Janadhikar Forum CA member Omprakash
Yadav Guljari, and Nepali Congress CA members
Harshajit Lama and Lalita Kingring had met the Tibetan leader.

NC Parliamentary Party (PP) has also asked
clarification from its CA members on the meeting
after being pressurized by the Chinese embassy.

CA member Kingring and Lama said their meeting
with the Tibetan leader was religious and not political.

Kingring said she was not wrong in meeting a
religious leader of the faith she has been
following since birth. It was sad that she had to
give clarification even for meeting a religious Guru, she said.

Some journalists also were part of the delegation
of CA members that met the Dalai Lama.

China has been pressuring Nepal to adopt
stringent measures on Tibetan refugees and
raising strong objections against any activity
that it thinks support the Free Tibet movement.

The Chinese embassy was infuriated when almost a
dozen CA members met the Dalai Lama last year.

Earlier last month, Nepal banned Tibetan refugees
from celebrating Dalai Lama's 75th birthday, and
even arrested several Tibetans.

Past estimates suggest between 2,500 and 3,000
Tibetans escape Tibet and enter Nepal each year
on their way to Dharamsala, the seat of Tibetan
Government-in-Exile in north India. The number
has slowed down dramatically since 2008 after
Nepal beefed up security along its border with Tibet.

Nepal is home to about 20,000 exiled Tibetans who
began arriving in large numbers in 1959 after
their spiritual leader the Dalai Lama fled Tibet
following a failed uprising against the Chinese rule.