China keeps frontier closed: food supplies in Mustang, a land with a rich history of sagas, are running short

The Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) called on Friday for the immediate release of 900 Tibetan demonstrators who were arrested on Thursday in Nepal in protests against the Olympic torch-run through Tibet . Among those arrested are dozens of nuns and monks and three leading representatives of the 20,000 Tibetan refugees living in Nepal . "There has been for many years a great deal of criticism of the arbitrary deportation of Tibetan refugees from Nepal to China ", said the GfbV Asia consultant, Ulrich Delius. "However the recent mass arrests leave in the shade all infringements which have so far been perpetrated against Tibetans in Nepal ."

The GfbV is also disturbed by the news from the north of Nepal . Food supplies are scarce because China for fear of Tibetan demonstrators has applied harsh security measures and held its frontier with the neighbouring country closed for three months. "People in the district of Mustang are faced with a famine because the traditional trade with Tibet has come to a standstill on account of the closing of the frontier", warned the GfbV Asia consultant, Ulrich Delius.

Mustang, a land with a rich history of sagas, is a former independent Buddhist kingdom in the Himalayas, which because of its remote position feels itself traditionally less close to the south of Nepal than to Tibet . Here live some 6,000 inhabitants, who speak a Tibetan dialect, on the plateau, which covers 2,500 sq km, being surrounded by chains of mountains going up to 6,000 metres. They live mainly from farming and animal husbandry, but also engage in retail trade.

Mustang has a reputation among Western tourists as one of the most untouched regions of the world. Until 1992 the former small kingdom was closed to foreign visitors. The district was then declared a nature reserve. Since 2001 there has been a direct road between Mustang and Tibet , which in the course of the protests in the homeland of the Dalai Lama has been closed. Mustang is dependent on the delivery of provisions from Tibet since there is still no road linking it with the rest of Nepal .

When the public protests began in March 2008 in Chinese-occupied Tibet the People's Republic of China cut down sharply the freedom of travel with the neighbouring country. In view of the heavy pressure from Peking the authorities in Nepal have arrested hundreds of Tibetan refugees at demonstrations in the past three months.