30 September 2006
Tibetans shot at border
(ICT; RFA; AP; IHT) Chinese border troops opened fire on a group of about 80 Tibetans as they attempted to clandestinely cross from the TAR to Nepal, killing at least one person and wounding several others. The incident took place at the glaciated Nangpa Pass at 18,753 ft, (5716m) just a few kilometres west of Mount Cho Oyu, and was witnessed by a number of international mountaineers at an advance base camp. The dead woman, a nun, has been named as Kalsang Namtso, 17 years old from Driru county, Nagchu (Chin: Biru Xian, Nagqu) county, Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR). The group was split into two, and 43 eventually made it to Kathmandu, but the Chinese authorities detained at least 37, many of whom were children. Xinhua, the state news agency reported that soldiers on its border with Nepal ‘clashed’ with some 70 people attempting to flee the country, killing one person on the spot and injuring two others, including one who died later of altitude sickness. The report said that the people trying to cross the border attacked the soldiers, who were then "forced to defend themselves". This has been contradicted by video footage of the incident, taken by a Romanian climber, and comments made by both climbers and refugees. One of the Tibetan refugees said in Kathmandu: “There was no one who fought with the Chinese soldiers. I saw everything and in fact I am only Tibetan who saw everything. I threw my bag on the side of road and entered in the camp of the Western climbers”, adding that he had hidden in a toilet at the camp. Steve Lawes, a British police officer and one of the climbers, said: "I saw a group of between 20 and 30 people on foot heading towards the Nangpa Pass. Then those of us at advance base camp heard two shots, which may have been warning shots. The group started to cross the glacier and there were more shots. We were probably around 300 yards away from the Chinese who were shooting. This time it definitely wasn't warning shots: the soldiers were putting their rifles to their shoulders, taking aim, and firing towards the group. One person fell, got up, but then fell again. We had a telescope with us but the soldiers took this. Later they used it to look at the dead body". Approximately 20 minutes after the shooting, according to Mr Lawes and fellow climbers, two soldiers went to check the body, but it was left lying on the pass for around 36 hours before security personnel took it away. Following the shooting, Chinese officials, including medical and military officers, arrived in the area. Eyewitnesses reported that some of the group of Tibetans who had failed to reach Nepalese territory, including a young boy whose leg was apparently injured by the shooting, were taken into their vehicles and driven back to the Tibetan border towns. According to US Embassy spokeswoman in Beijing: “The US Ambassador on Thursday (12 October) had gone to the foreign ministry to officially protest the September 30 shooting incident”.