Police clash with protesters despite talks on Tibet

Police in Nepal have broken up protests by Tibetan monks near the Chinese embassy in the capital Kathmandu.

The police allegedly beat them with bamboo batons.

Today’s protest was the latest in a series of protests by Tibetans who have held almost daily demonstrations in Kathmandu since March 10.

Police say they have detained about 120 protesters for violating a ban on protests against the Chinese in Nepal.

The news came as envoys of the Dalai Lama today ended talks with Chinese officials that have led to an agreement to meet again, an apparent sign of progress in easing tensions raised by violent anti-government riots in Tibet.

Prime minister Samdhong Rinpoche of the India-based Tibetan government-in-exile said that he didn’t expect definitive results from the meeting that ended last night but was happy for dialogue to continue.

“Both sides have agreed to continue the dialogue process,” he said, adding that details on future meetings will come later.

“Like we said before, we’re not expecting much outcome from these talks but this is a slow process and we are happy to continue the dialogue,” he told reporters in Dharmsala, India.

Chinese state television and Xinhua News Agency also said a second round of talks had been agreed on.

CCTV said that the two Tibetan envoys had to report back to the Dalai Lama in India and that both sides “agreed to meet again at a suitable time”.

International critics have accused China of heavy-handed tactics in quelling the anti-government riots and protests in Tibet and Tibetan areas of western China. Some experts believe Beijing agreed to meet with the envoys to defuse that criticism ahead of the Beijing Olympics in August.

The talks were held in the booming city of Shenzhen, near Hong Kong, but neither side commented to a large group of foreign reporters waiting outside the venue.

Xinhua said the Chinese officials “answered patiently” questions raised by the Dalai Lama’s envoys.

But Xinhua added that the Chinese officials told the envoys the violent protests in March “had given rise to new obstacles for resuming contacts and consultations with the Dalai side”.

But even as the talks took place, China kept up its verbal attacks on the Dalai Lama, whom Beijing has blamed for worsening the unrest. The Dalai Lama has repeatedly denied the accusation.

“The central government hoped that to create conditions for the next round of contact and consultation, the Dalai side would take credible moves to stop activities aimed at splitting China, stop plotting and inciting violence and stop disrupting and sabotaging the Beijing Olympic Games,” Xinhua said on today.

State media gave no other details of the talks, but in previous rounds that broke down in 2006, officials from the Dalai Lama’s side brought up such issues as redrawing Tibet’s boundaries to include Tibetans living in other areas. There has also been talk of confidence-building measures such as having the Dalai Lama visit China.

The Dalai Lama, who fled Tibet during a failed uprising in 1959, says he is seeking meaningful autonomy for Tibet rather than independence from Chinese rule.

China’s capital, meanwhile, is tightening security around the highly symbolic Tiananmen Square ahead of the Olympics this summer.

New rules issued by the Beijing city government ban dangerous articles, including guns, explosives, knives and “other items that affect social order and public safety”.

The rules, enacted last month but announced only today, also allow unannounced searches of people and vehicles in the area around the vast plaza in the heart of Beijing. They also permit authorities to take unspecified emergency measures to disperse crowds.