Tibetan Uprising

For Immediate Release
March 10, 2008

INDIAN GOVERNMENT BLOCKS TIBETAN RETURN MARCH
Police Issue Restraining Order Against All Core Marchers

Dharamshala – Indian police today issued a restraining order from the central government in the names of all 100 Core Marchers participating in the Return March to Tibet. Police entered the grounds at Sarah College for Higher Tibetan Studies, where the Marchers are spending their first night on the road, and a restraining order was issued, claiming that the Core Marchers’ actions may “culminate into endangering public tranquility and breach of public peace.” The police told the Marchers they were “not to leave the territorial jurisdiction of Kangra District till further order.” The March, organized by five leading Tibetan non-governmental organisations based in India, is meant to travel through New Delhi before heading towards the Indo-Tibetan border in early April.

“Tibetan refugees have the right to return to Tibet, the land from where we come,” said Mr. Tsewang Rigzin, President of the Tibetan Youth Congress. “This is the first major obstacle we are facing but we remain committed to marching. We want to do nothing more than go back to our country and help to end the suffering of our brothers and sisters living under the brutal Chinese occupation.”

The March to Tibet includes monks, nuns, the elderly, and youth who were born in exile and for whom this march provides the opportunity to see Tibet for the first time with their own eyes. Thousands of supporters, including Tibetans, Indians and Westerners, accompanied the March from the Main Temple to Lower Dharamshala to show their solidarity.

“I appeal to the Indian authorities and the good people of India to support these Tibetan marchers in their desire to return to their homeland,” said Dr. B. Tsering, President of the Tibetan Women’s Association. “This is a purely nonviolent initiative modeled in the proud tradition of nonviolence promoted by the great Mahatma Gandhi.”

In preparation for the March, the Core Marchers, volunteers and Organizing Committee members attended a three-day training on Non-Violent Resistance and Discipline from March 6 to 8, 2008, at Dolmaling Nunnery, Dharamshala. Speakers at the workshops included Mr. Rajiv Vohra, a Gandhian and Director of Non-Violence Peace Force Asia, Delhi, and Anand Sharma, Director of the Shimla branch of the Human Rights Law Network.

The March to Tibet commenced from Dharamshala, the exile home of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and seat of the Tibetan Government-in-Exile, as Tibetans marked the 49th anniversary of the 1959 national uprising in Tibet. The launch comes just five months before China is set to host the summer Olympics, and is aimed at both fighting the Chinese occupation of Tibet and reinvigorating the Tibetan freedom movement.

The Tibetan People’s Uprising Movement is a global movement of Tibetans inside and outside of Tibet taking control of our political destiny. The March to Tibet, the heart of the Tibetan People’s Uprising Movement, aims to revive the spirit of the historic national uprising of 1959, and by engaging in direct action, bring about an end to China’s 60 years of illegal and brutal occupation of Tibet.

For more information please contact:

Campaign Coordinators:
Lobsang Yeshi: 9418 390 416
Tsering Chodup: 9418 221 605
Sherab Woeser: 9418 394 426 Dhasa / 9868 332 883 Delhi

Contact:
Tsewang Rigzin: 9805 247 259 (President, Tibetan Youth Congress)
B. Tsering: 9418 792 810 (President, Tibetan Women’s Association)
Ngawang Woebar: 9418 102 483 (President, GuChuSum Ex-Political Prisoners’ Mvmt)
Chime Youngdrung: 9418 069 179 (President, National Democratic Party of Tibet)
Tenzin Choeying: 9816 368 335 (National Director, Students for a Free Tibet India)