Britain's Princess Anne to visit Nepal

November 10, 2000
Web posted at: 4:03 PM HKT (0803 GMT)

KATHMANDU, Nepal (Reuters) -- Britain's Princess Anne will pay a five-day official visit to Nepal beginning November 23, the royal palace said on Friday.

A palace statement said Princess Anne, daughter of Queen Elizabeth II, would tour the Himalayan kingdom at the invitation of King Birendra's brother, Prince Gyanendra.

Foreign Ministry officials said the royal visitor was scheduled to tour refugee camps in east Nepal housing more than 98,000 refugees from Bhutan who are of ethnic Nepali origin.

The refugees, who fled the neighboring Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan in the early 1990s demanding political freedom and human rights, are living in seven U.N. supervised camps in east Nepal.

Several rounds of talks between Kathmandu and Thimpu to return the refugees have failed over differences regarding their identification.

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