Nepal police fire tear gas at Tibetan protesters

KATHMANDU (Reuters) - Police fired tear gas on Monday at about 200 Tibetan exiles, including monks and nuns, who staged a brief protest in front of the United Nations office in Kathmandu, police said.

Seven Tibetans and five police were injured. Police used batons to break up the protests and detained dozens of protesters.

The United Nations said it was "very concerned" over the police using, in some instances, "excessive" force to disperse the protests that took place in front of the UN building in the capital.

"I urge the government to respect its obligations under international human rights law and to uphold the fundamental rights to peaceful assembly and freedom of expression," Richard Bennett, chief of the Nepal unit of the UN human rights office, said in a statement.

Another top UN official, Robert Piper, said police had not been requested by the world body to intervene in the peaceful protests.

Protesters, demanding "free Tibet", chanted anti-China slogans. They carried placards reading "Stop Genocide in Tibet" and "China showing true brutal nature".

More than 20,000 Tibetans have been living in Nepal since 1959, when they fled after a failed uprising against China.

(Reporting by Gopal Sharma; Editing by Krittivas Mukherjee and Alex Richardson)