ANURAG ACHARYA

Emotions ran high at the Supreme Court hearing last week as 20 women, mostly mothers and sisters of detained Tibetan students broke down after their petition was turned down by the divisional bench. "They are children, not criminals," cried an inconsolable mother, "they should be home studying for exams, not in jail."

Two girls and eleven boys were arrested by the Lalitpur sub-metropolitan police on 24 February at 2:30 PM from outside the UN building in Pulchok where they had gathered to submit a memorandum on the human rights situation in Tibet. Ten prominent lawyers argued their case, stating that in the absence of a complaint from the UN body or any individual, and with no credible evidence of violence or obstruction to public life, there was no legal basis for their detention.

"The detention violates individual's freedom and right to peaceful gathering since the area was neither a restricted zone nor under any emergency law, the state cannot use a vague term of 'public offense' to make a case of detention," said defence lawyer, Pawan Jaiswal.

There is sufficient ground to question the intention of Lalitpur administration which twisted the details of the case and made a unilateral decision without providing legal defence to the accused. The students were later released after parents submitted the bail amount.

"The CDO lied that we were creating disturbance in a restricted zone but we had only gone there to submit a piece of paper. We went on a hunger strike for a day questioning why we were detained but they threatened if we don't break our strike, 'anything can happen'," one of the students told me. In the absence of a clear legal status, young Tibetans in Nepal are vulnerable to persecution from an over-zealous police. This was evident during the hearing where the sitting judges refused to entertain judicial precedence of the 2006 Thakur Gaire case. Ironically, that same day 27 lawyers protesting in front of the Supreme Court's own gate, which is a restricted zone, faced no charges.

Nini Gurung of UNHCR told Nepali Times that in principle, Tibetans who arrived in Nepal prior to 1990 and their descendants are entitled to refugee cards attesting to their right to reside in the country. However, the issuance and renewal of such documents have been inconsistent and UNHCR has asked that every bonafide refugee should get an identity document.

International rights groups have repeatedly appealed to the Nepal government to uphold international human rights conventions of which it is a signatory, but to no avail. Most mistreatment of refugees go unreported, and Nepal's mainstream press was conspicuous by its absence at the Supreme Court last week.

The real puzzle, however, is how a police force which has failed spectacularly over the years to foil terror attacks and assure public security, has all the time in the world to chase, harass and deport Tibetan refugees?