PHOTO ESSAY: Tibetans depart Nepal, a former safe haven transformed under Chinese pressure

DHARAMSHALA, India (AP) — Sonam Tashi refuses to let his son inherit the same fear.

Once active in the Free Tibet movement in Kathmandu, he found himself silenced. Unable to secure identity papers for his son, he left for the Tibetan capital in exile in India this year where his son will begin an education he can't have at home.

There he joined a rare protest in a city so reminiscent of what Kathmandu once was — where monks walk freely and the Dalai Lama’s portrait is not a risk.

An investigation by The Associated Press found that much of the Chinese technology used to surveil Tibetans in Nepal originally came from American companies. Despite warnings that Chinese firms were copying or outright stealing their designs, these firms built, customized, and expanded China’s surveillance apparatus over the past quarter-century.

Born in Nepal to Tibetan refugees, Tashi spent years on the frontlines of protest, a regular presence outside the Chinese embassy in Kathmandu. In the early days, arrests were brief — just a day or two — but by 2015, police were holding protesters for weeks. The crowds thinned. Eventually, Tashi was one of the last still showing up.

Surveillance trailed them beyond the protests.

Police began showing up hours before any gathering could start, demanding answers to questions they shouldn’t have known to ask: What are you doing tomorrow? Where are you going?

Cameras multiplied — around Tibetan settlements, in temples, even near private homes. In Boudha, the comfort of lingering beneath the stupa’s all-seeing eyes curdled.

Now 49, Tashi is focused on his 10-year-old son. Once an organizer, he’s now just a father trying to get his son out — before the net pulls tighter. On a winding bus ride toward the Indian border, Sonam stared out the window as terraced hills gave way to forest, thinking about what comes next.

“There are cameras everywhere,” he said. “There is no future.”

This surveillance has helped silence Nepal’s once-vibrant “Free Tibet” movement. Thousands of Tibetans once fled to Nepal every year, but last year, the number was down to the single digits, according to Tibetan officials in Nepal.

Across the world, in Washington, D.C., Namkyi’s eyes hold the loneliness that haunts Tibetans in exile.

Arrested at 15 and sentenced to three years in prison for protesting Chinese rule, Namkyi traveled to the U.S. to recount her story of what it means a lose a home.

Dressed in black, with two small pins — Tibetan and American — on her coat, she recounts how under withering surveillance, silence has become survival for Nepal's dwindling Tibetan community.

“They know they are being watched,” she said.

Her eyes shine, not with certainty, but with the fragile hope that being heard might one day matter.

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This is a documentary photo story curated by AP photo editors.

A tear rolls down the cheek of Namkyi, a Tibetan former political prisoner who was arrested at 15 an imprisoned for protesting Chinese rule, as she recounts her story during an interview at the Office of Tibet in Washington, Oct. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Namkyi, right, a Tibetan former political prisoner who was arrested at 15 for protesting Chinese rule, watches as Tsultrim Gyatso, China Director at Office of Tibet, untangles the Tibetan flag over the office entrance in Washington, Oct. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Namkyi, right, a Tibetan former political prisoner who was arrested at 15 for protesting Chinese rule, shows the route she took when she escaped and crossed into Nepal to Tsejin Khando, with the International Campaign for Tibet, Oct. 8, 2025, at the Office of Tibet in Washington. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Namkyi, right, a Tibetan former political prisoner who was arrested at 15 for protesting Chinese rule, waits in the office of House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, for a meeting with his staff while joined by Tsultrim Gyatso, right, China Director at Office of Tibet, in Washington, Oct. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Namkyi, right, a Tibetan former political prisoner who was arrested at 15 for protesting Chinese rule, walks past National Guard troops on patrol with Tsejin Khando, with the International Campaign for Tibet, to a meeting, Oct. 7, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Namkyi, a Tibetan former political prisoner who was arrested at 15 for protesting Chinese rule, looks out toward the Washington Monument while driving to a meeting, Oct. 8, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Namkyi, a Tibetan former political prisoner who was arrested at 15 and imprisoned for protesting Chinese rule, is photographed at the Office of Tibet, Oct. 7, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Sonam Tashi takes part in a demonstration to commemorate the anniversary of the 1959 uprising in Tibet against the Chinese rule, in New Delhi, India, March 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

Tibetan monks are silhouetted as they walk past a mural at the Tsuglakhang temple in Mcleodganj near Dharamshala, India, March 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

Sonam Tashi, right, and his son, Kunga Tenzin, pass photographs of Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama at the entrance of the Tsuglakhang temple in Mcleodganj near Dharamshala, India, March 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

A Tibetan nun cleans copper lamps at Tsuglakhang temple in Mcleodganj near Dharamshala, India, March 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

Sonam Tashi talks on his mobile phone from Tibetan Children's Village school in Mcleodganj near Dharamshala, India, March 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

An exiled Tibetan cleans his balcony at Mcleodganj near Dharamshala, India, March 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

Sonam Tashi and his son, Kunga Tenzin, eat breakfast at a roadside stall in Mcleodganj near Dharamshala, India, March 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

Sonam Tashi, right, and his son, Kunga Tenzin, wait for transportation for Mcleodganj after reaching Dharamshala, India, where Tashi hopes the Tibetan government in exile can help his son access education, March 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

Sonam Tashi, right, and his son, Kunga Tenzin, take their luggage from a bus after reaching Dharamshala, India, where Tashi hopes the Tibetan government in exile can help his son access education, March 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

Tibetan flags hang above a street to commemorate the anniversary of the 1959 uprising in Tibet against the Chinese rule, in Mcleodganj near Dharamshala, India, March 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

Tibetan prayers hang from a footbridge at Majanu ka Tila, an exile Tibetan settlement, in New Delhi, India, March 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

Sonam Tashi sits on a bus in New Delhi as it leaves for Dharamshala where he hopes the Tibetan government in exile there can help his son access education, March 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

Sonam Tashi and his son, Kunga Tenzin, bottom right, prepare to board their bus to Dharamshala in New Delhi, India, March 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

Sonam Tashi takes a walk in a temple at the Tibetan Children's Village school in Mcleodganj near Dharamshala, India, March 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

A Kremlin envoy said peace talks on a U.S.-proposed plan to end the nearly four-year war in Ukraine were pressing on “constructively” in Florida, while the Ukrainian president said they were moving ”quickly."

The talks are part of the Trump administration’s monthslong push for peace that also included meetings with Ukrainian and European officials in Berlin earlier this week.

“The discussions are proceeding constructively. They began earlier and will continue today, and will also continue tomorrow,” Kirill Dmitriev told reporters in Miami on Saturday.

Dmitriev met with U.S. President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported.

Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram Sunday that diplomatic efforts were “moving forward quite quickly, and our team in Florida has been working with the American side.” This came after Ukraine’s chief negotiator said Friday his delegation had completed separate meetings in the United States with American and European partners.

Trump has unleashed an extensive diplomatic push to end the war, but his efforts have run into sharply conflicting demands by Moscow and Kyiv. Russian President Vladimir Putin has recently signaled he is digging in on his maximalist demands on Ukraine, as Moscow’s troops inch forward on the battlefield despite huge losses.

On Friday, Putin expressed confidence that the Kremlin would achieve its military goals if Kyiv didn’t agree to Russia’s conditions in peace talks.

The French presidency on Sunday welcomed Putin’s willingness to speak with President Emmanuel Macron, saying it would decide how to proceed “in the coming days.”

“As soon as the prospect of a ceasefire and peace negotiations becomes clearer, it becomes useful again to speak with Putin,” Macron’s office said in a statement. “It is welcome that the Kremlin publicly agrees to this approach.”

The statement came after reports that Putin was open to holding talks with the French president if there was mutual political will.

Macron’s office said any dialogue would aim “to contribute to a solid and lasting peace for Ukraine and Europe, in full transparency with President Zelenskyy and our European partners.”

European Union leaders agreed on Friday to provide 90 billion euros ($106 billion) to Ukraine to meet its military and economic needs for the next two years, although they failed to bridge differences with Belgium that would have allowed them to use frozen Russian assets to raise the funds. Instead, they were borrowed from capital markets.

In Ukraine, the country’s human rights ombudsman, Dmytro Lubinets, accused Sunday Russian forces of forcibly removing about 50 Ukrainian civilians from the Ukrainian Sumy border region to Russian territory.

Writing on Telegram, he said that Russian forces illegally detained the residents in the village of Hrabovske on Thursday, before moving them to Russia on Saturday.

Lubinets said he contacted Russia’s human rights commissioner, requesting information on the civilians’ whereabouts and conditions, and demanding their immediate return to Ukraine.

FILE - Russian Presidential foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov, left, U.S. President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, center, U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff, foreground right, and Russian Direct Investment Fund CEO Special Presidential Representative for Investment and Economic Cooperation with Foreign Countries Kirill Dmitriev, behind Witkoff, arrive to attend talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Senate Palace of the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Dec. 2, 2025. (Alexander Kazakov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP, File)