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Kathmandu police baton-charge Tibetan protesters

Police in Nepal baton-charged a protest by Tibetan refugees and monks in front of the Chinese embassy visa office and detained dozens of protesters yesterday amid warnings from the UN human rights agency that arresting protesters without any charge was illegal.

Police tried to push them away from the office in Kathmandu yesterday, but when the protesters refused, they were grabbed and put in vans and trucks and driven to detention centers.

Nepal has said it would not allow protests against any "friendly nation," including China.

Police said 71 protesters were held and sent to different detention centers.

"This is to show our solidarity with [the people] in Tibet," monk Lopsang Semten said before he was dragged away by police.

Another protester, Nima Dolma, 25, said China must "stop killing in Tibet, free all those who are arrested and hold talks with the Dalai Lama."

On Monday, authorities detained more than 400 people in separate protests.

In response, the UN human rights agency expressed deep concern and asked the Nepalese government to refrain from unlawful actions.

The Nepal unit of the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said late on Monday some people had been arrested in the streets of Kathmandu on the basis of their appearance and on the assumption they hold certain political opinions and might participate in protests.

"Such arrests constitute a form of unlawful discrimination," OHCHR representative in Nepal Richard Bennett said.

More than 20,000 Tibetans have been living in Nepal since fleeing the Himalayan region after a failed uprising against Beijing in 1959.
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