NEPAL-Who Armed the Khampas

THE Nepalese police were ordered on August 1 to proceed to Khampa camps in the northern border district of Mustang to "launch a vigorous search for arms, ammunition and communications equipment and seize them if found'.. In a tersely worded press announcement the Nepalese Home Minister warned that if anybody in the camps made any attempt to obstruct, impede or hamper this operation the police would deal with them. There have been some indications that for some time China has been quietly persuading Nepal to disarm the Khampa tribesmen from Tibet who had taken refuge in Mustang district and had in the past waged guerilla war against the Chinese in Tibet.