World Tibet Network News Tuesday, April 14, 1998

KATHMANDU, April 14 (AFP) - Nepal police have arrested 118 people, including women and children, in the latest wave of Tibetans entering the country illegally on their way to the India home of their spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, officials said Tuesday.

"The arrested Tibetans, including women and children, have been sent to the immigration department in Kathmandu Sunday for necessary action," they said.

Last week, a group of more than 20 Tibetans were arrested for illegally crossing the border.

The flight of Tibetans to Dharamsala, the northern India base of the Dalai Lama, forced China last November to tighten controls on the Tibet-Nepal border. In 1997, some 4,000 Tibetans passed through Nepal on their way to Dharamsala, a Tibetan Refugee Camp source in Kathmandu said.

The Tibetans walk for weeks through snow in the hills, without proper food or drink and without money, to receive the blessing of the Dalai Lama who has been in exile since a 1959 failed uprising against the Chinese

occupation of Tibet.

"So far the Tibetans who declare themselves as refugees and seek political asylum expressing their desire to go to Dharamsala are sent there," an immigration department official said.

One Tibetan who entered Nepal told AFP he had failed in three previous attempts over several years to get to Dharamsala.

"I succeeded in my plan after trying for the fourth attempt in 15 years," the Tibetan said requesting his name to be withheld.

"I plan to go to Dharamsala now but I will return to Tibet again because my family members are still there and if the Chinese authorities back home find out that I am missing from the village then they will be in real trouble," he said.

"Poverty and unemployment in Tibet have also driven many Tibetans away from home," he added.

Forwarded by Sherab G. Lhatsang