Correction: in TIN News Update of 24 Feb 1997 ("Officials Silent Over Deng's Death") on page 1, line 21, "premier" should read "president".

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TIN News Update / 26 February, 1997/ total pages: 3 ISSN 1355-3313

A 22-year old Tibetan woman was raped twelve times by a group of Nepalese men led by a police officer in December last year after she escaped across the border to seek an education in India, according to accounts provided by the victim and corroborated by other Tibetans who were with her.

Three other Tibetan women, including one nun, are said to have been sexually assaulted by Nepalese police in an incident in western Nepal in November, and last month police officers in north-eastern Nepal are alleged to have demanded the sexual services of a girl in another group of Tibetan refugees in return for an offer of safe passage.

The 22-year old Tibetan who was the victim of the multiple rape in December was travelling in a group of seven Tibetans who left the border town of Dram by foot on 12th December last year. The group walked through the mountains for three days and successfully crossed the border into Nepal but were caught by seven Nepalese men wearing police and military-style uniforms and carrying police identity cards.

The woman was told that if she did not comply with the men's wishes she and the group would be deported to Tibet.

The Nepalese Home Ministry, which has been carrying out an investigation into the incident for two months, today said that it had not been able to clear up the case, but that it was certain that no policemen were involved in the rape.

"This incident was not the fault of the policemen," said Mr Pandey, an Under-Secretary at the Home Ministry, speaking by phone from Kathmandu. "Nepalese police were not involved in this case, or in any other cases involving assault of Tibetan women who crossed the border," he told TIN. The Nepalese authorities have also not charged anyone in connection with cases of attempted murder and assault on Tibetans at a Kathmandu refugee camp last October.

Details:

The multiple rape of the 22-year old woman took place over two nights on 15th and 16th December in a deserted building on the outskirts of Barabisa, a small town 90 km north east of Kathmandu which holds the first major police post south of the border as well as a detachment of border police or troops.

The group of refugees, which consisted of one man, three women and three children, had been made to hide in the building while their guides looked for food and for transport to the capital.

"That night at around 12 midnight the woman who owned the house opened the door and seven people walked in," said the victim, whose name is being withheld by TIN to protect her identity. "One was in blue police uniform and had two golden stars on his shoulder, the rest were in camouflage uniform," she said.

"They had a torch and they announced that they were police and showed us some handcuffs and police identity cards," said the girl, who is from a nomad family in Ngapa in Amdo, eastern Tibet.

The police ordered the girl - the only woman in the group whom they believed was not married - to accompany them outside the house. "The policemen told me that I should do what they wanted or else the whole group would be deported to Tibet," said the girl. She was then taken to an upper room where she was raped by the policeman in uniform and then by the six men in camouflage outfits.

"I was in great pain, and felt dizzy and could not get up from the floor afterwards," she told TIN. She was pulled onto her feet by some of the men and then "dragged back in tears to the room where the rest of the group were staying".

The group were left locked in the same house without food or water until about 11 pm the next night when the policeman in uniform arrived with four of the men who had been with him on the previous night.

The police took the group to another house further away from the village, and then took the girl into an adjoining room where she was raped again by the five men. "Afterwards I was taken back to the other room with the others and then the policeman said we could go," she said.

The group were handed over to their guides, one of whom was able to escort her without further incident to the refugee reception centre operated by Tibetan exiles in Kathmandu, where she arrived on 20th December. The girl, who had been asked to pay 8,000 Nepalese rupees (about US $180) to her guide for the trip, was given hospital treatment in Kathmandu for internal injuries.

Before the Barabisa policemen carried out the first rape session they demanded and took all the money held by the refugees - a total of 5,000 Nepalese rupees (about US $100) - and then body-searched them, taking two precious stones which they found, as well as all their blankets, spare clothes and torches, according to the refugees.

The other Tibetans in the group made no attempt to protect the girl during the incident and encouraged her to comply with the policemen's initial demands, according to one report.

The rape victim had escaped from Tibet in order to seek an education in a school run by Tibetan exiles. "My desire was to study," said the girl, who has had no education in Tibet because her parents had needed her to work with their animals. "I have never been to school so I don't know how to write Tibetan or Chinese, but I will learn Tibetan and English soon," she said. She is unlikely to be eligible for long-term schooling in exile because of her age.

NO PROGRESS IN OFFICIAL INVESTIGATION -

The Nepalese authorities were formally notified of the Barabisa rape in late December last year and an investigation at a senior level was initiated a few days later. The victim was able to describe the leader of the rapists as a "man aged between 45 and 50 with a big paunch" but two months later no action appears to have been taken except to rule out the involvement of any policemen in the incident.

"It's been nearly two months but the police have not caught the culprit," the victim said last week. "I have a strong feeling that even if the police catch the culprits they will release them," she said.

The case is of added significance because very few women report incidents of sexual abuse, which can lead to social ostracisation, and because refugee victims of police abuse in Nepal are usually unable to identify the police post or village where the incident took place.

The Nepalese authorities have still failed to press charges against anyone involved in the cases of attempted murder and assault arising from the looting of the Kathmandu refugee reception centre four months ago, although victims are said to have identified and named the main suspect.

The attack on the centre took place during the night of 31st October last year, and was carried out by locals apparently after a dispute arose over water supplies. It left at least two Tibetans in a serious condition with suspected brain damage. Two Nepalese were briefly detained and then released during police investigations.

TIBETAN WOMEN ASSAULTED IN WEST NEPAL -

In a separate incident in November last year two Tibetan men in a group

of 42 refugees were beaten up by Nepali police when they tried to stop them assaulting three Tibetan women in the group.

The group was under police detention in Simikot, a town in the western Nepalese district of Humla, after being caught escaping from Tibet. Two young women and a nun were separated by police from the rest of the group and confined in an adjoining room, where they were later sexually assaulted by police, according to reports by other members of the group.

The women could be heard screaming by the other refugees, who said the assaults took place on each of three nights and could be seen by the other detainees. On the third night two Tibetan men from the group attempted to intervene after seeing Nepali police officers lying on top of the three women, but were beaten up by the police, who were wearing uniforms and carrying rifles. The women victims did not themselves wish to discuss the incidents, according to the reports.

Last month a Tibetan man who escaped in a group of refugees from Tibet reported that a group of 12 policemen in north-eastern Nepal tried to persuade him to provide a girl from his group for sexual services in return for safe passage to Kathmandu. The Tibetan, who asked not to be named, was in a group of 24 Tibetans who were detained at the Chogsham police post in Lama Bhagar, 100 km north-east of Kathmandu, on about 22nd January. The refugees refused to co-operate with the police and were later released after handing over 8,000 yuan (US $1,000) to the policemen.

There are few reports of rapes by Chinese police in Tibet, but an alleged incident took place involving a woman who had returned from Nepal to Tibet early last year. The alleged incident arose when a Tibetan man and his wife were detained by Chinese police near the Friendship Bridge in Dram (Chinese: Zhangmu) in April 1996 after returning from a visit to Nepal.

The husband, named as Wangdrup, was kept in handcuffs in a police cell and his wife was raped by two Chinese policemen, according to the report, which is unconfirmed. Wangdrup, who comes from Amdo in Eastern Tibet, was said to be still in custody in Dram last month.