KELSANG PHUNTSOK, a 25-year-old Tibetan, lies with his legs stretched out. Both feet are in thick plaster. They were fractured by the police during a protest in Kathmandu. He was hit on the head, fell, and was then beaten on the ground with bamboo sticks for five minutes by three policemen.

Scores more of Nepal's 20,000-strong Tibetans have suffered similar treatment during peaceful demonstrations since March 10th. They have been beaten, tear-gassed, kicked and, they say, threatened with deportation. Every day dozens are arrested and later released. The United Nations' human-rights office says some people are now being arrested purely “on the basis of their appearance”, without even demonstrating.

The suppression of Tibetan protests by a government that emerged from a people-power movement two years ago seems shocking. Nepal has been destination or transit route for tens of thousands of Tibetans fleeing into exile. But the government bans Tibetan protests because of its “one-China” policy. It values its alliance with China as a balance to its close but prickly relationship with its other neighbour, India.

China enjoys some ideological support, too. Nepal's second-biggest mainstream party is nominally Marxist-Leninist. Some see the Dalai Lama and Tibet's old rulers as a feudal oppressive class and perceive Tibet as a backward region being developed by the Chinese.

China gives Nepal aid and has built a road from Kathmandu to the Tibetan border. It supports whatever government is in power. The Nepali police admit that Chinese diplomats nag them to stop Tibetan protests. At the main border crossing, Chinese officials have been entering Nepal, apparently to reconnoitre.

Tibetans do share cultural, linguistic and Buddhist religious ties with many Nepali ethnic groups. But exiles are resented as well as pitied. Some self-styled “local Nepalis” have clashed angrily with Tibetans, shouting at them not to demonstrate at a Buddhist shrine.

Nepal's Tibetan headache is not over. The government is pondering how much to restrict access to Mount Everest in early May, when the Olympic torch is due on the Tibetan side of the summit. China would like Nepal's side closed. But that might anger mountaineers, who may have more clout than Tibetans.