Kathmandu, July 24:

The US-based Human Rights Watch today condemned the arbitrary arrest of Tibetan protesters in Nepal and the abuse of their rights.

Releasing a report, the rights watchdog said the government of Nepal had been violating free expression and assembly rights of the Tibetan protesters.

“Nepal government is turning the screws on peaceful Tibetan protesters at the behest of China,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at HRW. “How can a government that came to power on a wave of public protests justify crushing peaceful protests by Tibetans?”

The report titled “Appeasing China: Restricting Rights of Tibetans in Nepal” documented incidents of violations of human rights of Tibetan protesters by the Nepali police.

The organisation also said the government had abused the rights of Tibetans through unnecessary and excessive use of force, arbitrary arrest, sexual assault during the arrest, preventive detention, beatings, unlawful threats to depot to China, restriction on freedom of movement, harassment of Tibetan and foreign journalists and harassment of rights defenders.

The rights body said during the preparation of the report, the rights organisation had interviewed the victims, and observed the arrests.

The rights body called the government to respect fundamental rights of Tibetans to engage in peaceful assembly and expression and to end the arbitrary arrest and harassment of those who do so. HRW also called on the Chinese government to cease its public and private pressure on the government of Nepal to violate the rights of Tibetans.