Activist group says Tibetans fired upon by Chinese while crossing into Nepal

BEIJING - Tibetans trying to cross a mountain pass to exile in Nepal were fired upon by Chinese border police, an activist group said Wednesday.

A group of more than 30 Tibetans, including Buddhist monks nuns and two children, were trying to cross into Nepal using the icy Himalayan Nangpa Pass on Oct. 18 when they were fired upon by China's People's Armed Police, the Washington-based International Campaign for Tibet said, quoting several members of the group who reached Katmandu in Nepal.

It said there were no reported injuries or fatalities, but that several members of the group including three monks were taken into custody.

The report follows a similar case in September last year when a group of international climbers witnessed a Buddhist nun being shot dead from the same location. The incident was captured on video by a Romanian cameraman climber, leading to international condemnation. The activist group said incidents also took place in 2002 and 2005.

A man who refused to provide his name at the Tibetan government's media office said: "I have no idea of this. It should not have happened in Tibet."

Telephone calls to the police in the Tibet capital of Lhasa rang unanswered Wednesday.

According to the Campaign for Tibet, the Tibetans were chased by an armed group telling them to stop. About seven police officials fired at them. Whether the shots came before or after the shouting at the Tibetans is unclear from the report.

About 2,000 Tibetans arrive in Nepal each year according to the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. Many attempt to reach Dharamsala, India, the base of the Tibetan government in exile led by the Dalai Lama.

The Dalai Lama, Tibet's traditional leader, fled in 1959 amid an abortive uprising against Chinese forces, who had moved into the region after the Communist takeover of the country.

Tibetans crossing into Nepal often are ordinary people from East Tibet, who want to send their children to Tibetan schools, or monks who want to study and don't feel that is fully possible in Tibet, said Robbie Barnett, who teaches modern Tibetan studies at Columbia University.

East Tibet has been the site of increased economic and social changes as part of China's development of the region which may be "culturally very unsettling for them," he said.