Crisis in Mustang

(AsiaNews)

More than 10,000 people suffer food shortage as a result of a ban on
food exports from Tibet to Nepal imposed by Beijing and linked to a move to
stop Tibetans from fleeing their homeland. Since August 2006, overland links
from Tibet into the northern Nepali district of Mustang have been cut. This has
had the effect of exacerbating an already serious food shortage in the area and
is affecting a largely Buddhist population that has strong ties to Tibetans.

Balananda Basyal, head of the Nepalese Food Corporation depot in the town of
Lomanthang in upper Mustang district, said that famine was widespread in the
area until the government and international agencies were able to ensure the
residents' survival. However, "with the collapse of the [former royalist]
government in Nepal, aid has stopped. We can only get food from Tibet but now the
Chinese ban has caused such shortages that we'll soon start to starve". Human
rights activist Ram Ekbal Choudhary explained that the Chinese have imposed the
ban "on the excuse that Tibetans use the lorries carrying food to flee their
region through Nepal in order to go to India and the Dalai Lama". This
accusation, he immediately added, "is ridiculous. There was no need to take
drastic measures that endanger the lives of hundreds of people. China has
security forces all along the border. Why doesn't it use them to check the
lorries?".