August 22, 2010

TIBETANS CONVERTED NEPALI CITIZENS : US BREACH OF DIPLOMACY IN THE HIMALAYAS ?

Posted by The Himalayan Voice:
[“The act of the US Embassy is highly objectionable to Nepal and it is the breach of diplomatic norms”, commented a Home Ministry official. “It will adversely affect our friendly ties with China if the Tibetans who visit US as Nepali citizens get themselves involved in anti-China activities”, the Nepal government authority adds.

“It has been already two months, we had raised concerns over this matter in a formal letter sent to the embassy, but there is no response”. Lone Super power is above the international laws? “The issue was raised recently at a meeting between Home Minister Bhim Rawal and Atul Keshap”, says Jaya Mukunda Khanal- the spokesperson at the Ministry of Home Affairs.]



After successfully portraying Nepal as a security prone state in its Country Report on Terrorism, the United States which was criticized by local security experts and the report also rebuked by the Government of Nepal itself, the United States  embassy in Kathmandu has been freshly found involved in breaching diplomatic practices in Nepal.

Thanks to the Indian lobby media through their write-ups made their own country “unsecured” as per alien instructions which benefited the US largely.

But, the US will pay its heavy price time permitting. In what form such a price the US will have to pay will be once again made public, sometime later, through the same media lobby which apparently supported the US version on Nepal in its Country report in the recent weeks. The US has yet to understand the Indian “classical maneuvering”.

One of the leading newspapers in Nepal August 21, 2010, reports quoting sources at the Ministry of Home Affairs, that the US Embassy in Kathmandu has been of late issuing travel visa to US to the Tibetan Refugees as “Nepali nationals”.

High placed sources at the Home Ministry claim that in the Travel Document made available to the Refugees by the Nepal Government, it has been found that the Embassy while issuing Travel visa to the Tibetan refugees marking ‘NEP’ i.e. Nepali to the Tibetans.

Tibetan refugees can’t be Nepalese nationals but the US embassy is making the Tibetans residing in Nepal as nationals of Nepal to which they are not.  What a gross insult of the host country?

There are some 25,000 government recognized Tibetan Refugees in Nepal. Ambassador Scott H. DeLisi in his bid to subside the debate over if Nepal was really turning into a playground of International terrorist groups put the blames on to the heads of Nepali media for distorting the facts but, the fresh disclosure over this diplomatic breach will drag the US into yet another controversy of Himalayan dimension, experts opine.

How Ambassador DeLisi tackles the fresh controversy will perhaps determine his diplomatic acumen? If he fails to prove his innocence would mean that he is here to kill Nepal-China relations.

“The act of the US Embassy is highly objectionable to Nepal and it is the breach of diplomatic norms”, commented a Home Ministry official. “It will adversely affect our friendly ties with China if the Tibetans who visit US as Nepali citizens get themselves involved in anti-China activities”, the Nepal government authority adds.

“It has been already two months, we had raised concerns over this matter in a formal letter sent to the embassy, but there is no response”. Lone Super power is above the international laws? “The issue was raised recently at a meeting between Home Minister Bhim Rawal and Atul Keshap”, says Jaya Mukunda Khanal- the spokesperson at the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Keshap who recently visited Nepal is the US acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs.

A US embassy official in reply tells the Kantipur Daily that since we cannot mark the person ‘state-less’, the Embassy has been marking the Tibetans as Nepali Citizens. Has the US the authority to change even one’s nationality? The US can do it because it is the United States of America.

The report also claims that the embassy has already initiated process to solve the ‘technical problem’ it needs to be addressed by the US senate it might take long. This “long” may allow a sizeable section of the Tibetan refugees residing in Nepal to visit the US with Nepali nationality.

The Washington-Delhi “axis” is hell bent on teasing China from the Nepalese soil. How China reacts to this “open” challenge from the US will have to be watched?

@ Telegraph Nepal
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