KATHMANDU, DEC 20 -
An unnamed official at the US Embassy in New Delhi claimed that China is paying money to Nepal police officers to arrest Tibetan refugees from the Nepal-China border, a cable released by whistleblower site WikiLeaks has revealed.
“Chinese government rewards (Nepali forces) by providing financial incentives to officers who hand over Tibetans attempting to exit China,” the recently released cable quoted an unnamed source as disclosing the information.
The confidential US Embassy document titled ‘Update on Tibetan refugee flow’ was sent by an unnamed political officer at the US Embassy in Delhi on Feb. 22 this year and is based on conversations with two people whose names were also not revealed.
The cable offers insights into the flow of Tibetan refugees from Tibet to Dharmsala in India through Nepal.
According to the cable, the number of Tibetans travelling into India through Nepal declined significantly following the March 2008 uprising in Tibet.
“Beijing has asked Kathmandu to step up patrols of Nepali border forces and make it more difficult for Tibetans to enter Nepal,” the cable added.
Releasing other secret documents, WikiLeaks revealed that India believes Nepal’s Maoists have sold “some weapons” to Indian Naxals.
The document sent by the US Embassy in New Delhi to its State Department in Washington DC states that India, however, does not believe that domestic Naxals and Nepalese Maoists maintain any significant operational link. “The relationship between them is commercial, not ideological,” reads the document.
In explaining Indian security concern, the document states that India is increasingly concerned that “Jihadis are infiltrating into Northeast India from Nepal and Bangladesh.”
Nepali Maoists, the document adds, appear to enjoy relatively free movement within Naxal-held areas in India along the 1,700 km open border. “While we frequently hear reports of Nepalese Maoist leaders (including Number 1 Prachanda and Number 2 Baburam Bhattarai) spending long periods of time in India with leftist sympathisers, the GoI (Government of India) has assured us repeatedly that it gives no quarter to Nepalese Maoists, and several
high-ranking Maoists are being held in Indian jails.”
Ngawang Tenji Sherpa
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