KATHMANDU, MAR 12 -

Sixteen Tibetan exiles arrested after they attempted to storm the Chinese Embassy in Nepal's capital earlier this week will remain in jail without trial for 90 days, officials said.

Katmandu police chief Ganesh Chettri said the sentence was ordered by the chief district officer under the public security act.

Nepalese officials have banned protests against China, saying any activities against a friendly nation will not be tolerated. The detainees were stopped at the gates of the Chinese Embassy's visa office, where they were trying to break in Wednesday. Others protested near a Buddhist temple in Katmandu to mark the anniversary of the March 10, 1959, riots against Chinese rule in Tibet that led to a crackdown and the Dalai Lama's dramatic flight across the Himalayas and into exile.

Police broke up the protests and detained 34 demonstrators. The remaining 18 were freed.

Tibetans in Nepal have been protesting regularly against China since 2008 _ a source of embarrassment to Nepal's government, which wants strong ties with China.

Nepal has been under pressure from China to stop the protests _ and from Western nations to allow them.

Thousands of Tibetan exiles live in Nepal, and hundreds more are allowed to pass through the country on their way to Dharmasala, India, where the Dalai Lama lives in exile.

China claims Tibet has always been part of its territory, but many Tibetans say the Himalayan region was virtually independent for centuries until Chinese troops invaded in the 1950s.

Posted on: 2010-03-12 12:32

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