A 17-year-old Tibetan nun, Kelsang Namtso, was killed and a youth was shot by Chinese border security forces on 30 September 2006 as they attempted to flee from persecution in Tibet. They were in a group of approximately 70 Tibetans making the perilous journey into Nepal over the Nangpa La Pass, situated at 19,000 feet and 20km west of Mount Everest.

The ambush was witnessed by at least 60 western climbers who were at the Cho Oyu Advance Base Camp. Eyewitness accounts from the climbers are consistent in saying that they saw Chinese armed personnel kneel down, take aim and open fire at the Tibetans, among whom were at least 14 children, some as young as six years old.

MountEverest.net, a climbers' website, was the first to report of the killing and quoted a "trusted source" (a western mountaineer who was climbing at the time) as reporting that he witnessed the Chinese Army shoot at a line of Tibetan refugees as they made their way to the Nangpa La Pass on the border with Nepal.

This shooting by the Chinese border guards is in violation of the UN Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials (1990), which requires that "Law enforcement officials shall not use firearms against persons except in self-defence or defence of others against the imminent threat of death or serious injury, to prevent the perpetration of a particularly serious crime involving grave threat to life, to arrest a person presenting such a danger and resisting their authority, or to prevent his or her escape, and only when less extreme means are insufficient to achieve these objectives. In any event, intentional lethal use of firearms may only be made when strictly unavoidable in order to protect life." (Principle 9).

Survivors captured by Chinese border guards.

In October 2007, a year after the tragic deaths at Nangpa La, another defenceless group of Tibetan refugees was shot at by Chinese border guards in the same location. This time fortunately nobody died.

Read The Price of Freedom, Free Tibet’s report on the 2006 Nangpa La shootings and the plight of Tibetan refugees.