NEPAL, Namche Bazaar — In a further crackdown by Nepalese authorities on any hint of pro-Tibetan protests on the Nepal side of Mount Everest, Nepalese officials have reportedly expelled BBC Nepal Correspondent, Charles Haviland from the Everest Base Camp area today.
Which in effect is a media ban on reporting from the Base Camp, which is situated high up on the Khumbu Glacier. Mr Haviland was prevented from broadcasting from the area by Nepalese officials, according to reports on BBC World Service radio.
Nepalese security forces have also clamped down on pro-Tibet protesters in the capital, Kathmandu and also warned Tibetans living in the Everest region not to stage anti-China protests.
Last week, one American climber was also ordered off the mountain at Camp 1 when a pro-Tibetan banner was discovered in his pack.
Nepalese security forces are also searching trekkers heading up to the famous Everest Base Camp for "banned flags". Last week, senior Chinese government and security officials visited the Khumbu Himal (as the Everest region is known locally) to see the precautions being taken by the Nepalese to prevent protests over Chinese human rights abuse in Tibet.
Meanwhile, a party of foreign correspondents today arrived on the Tibetan side of Everest to report on the special Olympic Torch which is planned to be on the summit in a matter of days – perhaps say some analysts say to coincide with the 100 day "countdown" to the opening of the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics.
Passing today through the North Korean capital Pyongyang, the torch has had a protest-free day. Since it left Athens, the Olympic Torch relay has drawn scores of protests over China’s continuing occupation of Tibet and it’s bizarre and cruel treatment of many Tibetans.
It is not gauranteed that the Chinese climbing team will make it, however, as even the best-equipped teams can fail to summit the 8884 metre peak – which is the tallest in the world.
Indeed, the mountain is known to Tibetans as Chomolunga – which has never been properly translated, though is popularly thought to mean "Goddess Mother of the World".
Some thing that the affrontery of the Chinese plan to put the torch on the mountain may not go down too well with the Tibetan diety which some belief it is.