Category: 
For Immediate Release
March 17, 2008
EXILED TIBETANS CONDEMN CHINA’S VIOLENT CRACKDOWN IN TIBET
Appeal for international intervention, release of detained Tibetan marchers in India
Dharamshala - As China’s so-called “surrender” deadline for Tibetan protesters draws nearer, five Tibetan non-governmental organizations held a press briefing today to condemn the violent crackdown inside Tibet and appeal for international intervention. As the Organizing Committee for the March to Tibet, they also appealed to the Indian government to release the 101 marchers held in detention since last Thursday.
Thousands of Tibetans rallied at the Tsuglakhang main temple in Dharamshala yesterday to show their solidarity with Tibetans across Tibet. “We fear the worst for our Tibetan brothers and sisters as the Chinese authorities lockdown Lhasa and deploy armed police and troops across the country,” said Ngawang Woebar, President of GuChuSum Ex-Political Prisoners’ Movement of Tibet. “There are reports of potentially hundreds killed, house to house raids, arbitrary arrests and beatings in the streets and we expect only increased violence on the part of the Chinese security forces as foreign tourists and others are forced to leave. We strongly condemn this crackdown and appeal to the international community to immediately intervene and help protect the Tibetan people.”
The recent protests in Tibet are the largest and most widespread since 1959 and the result of nearly five decades of Tibetans’ frustration with China’s repressive policies, recent increases in anti-Dalai Lama rhetoric and religious restrictions, and China’s policy of encouraging Chinese migration to Tibet.
Chinese authorities exacerbated deep-seated resentments and simmering tensions over the past week with heavy-handed crackdowns on peaceful demonstrations. Meanwhile, the news blackout imposed by China has severely curtailed the flow of information about the ongoing protests inside Tibet and China’s handling of the situation. Given that the Chinese authorities control the information being released to the world, it is no coincidence that the images that have emerged predominantly show Tibetans as violent agitators, while Chinese civilians, shop owners, police, and soldiers are portrayed as victims.
On Saturday morning, a second wave of Tibetan exiles defied Indian government orders by resuming their March to Tibet. While 101 Tibetan marchers remain under judicial detention, a second group of 44 Tibetans set out just before 10:00am from Dehra, the same location where the first group was forcibly blocked and arrested under orders from the Indian government on Thursday. Many Tibetans in Dharamshala also spontaneously marched to Jawala Mukhi on Saturday where the 101 marchers are being detained to show their solidarity. In other cities around the world, Tibetans staged demonstrations and vigils in support of the uprising inside Tibet. Tibetans have been arrested in Kathmandu, Delhi, Sydney, Melbourne, New York, Chicago, Paris, Zurich, and Brussels as emotional opposition to China’s rule in Tibet boils over.
“As we can see from the protests here and all over the world, the Tibetan people remain committed to achieving independence and human rights. We hope that the international community will support us in our struggle to end nearly 50 years of Chinese occupation,” said Tsewang Rigzin, President of the Tibetan Youth Congress. “At this critical time, here in India, we call on the government to release the 101 Tibetan marchers currently being held at Yatri Niwas in Jiwalji. They did nothing more than peacefully march in support of our Tibetan brothers and sisters suffering inside of Tibet and should not be treated as common criminals.”
On March 10th, the 49th anniversary of the 1959 national uprising, monks from Drepung, Sera and Ganden monasteries on the outskirts of Lhasa began peacefully protesting. The protests have spread like wildfire inside Tibet; especially in the Tibetan provinces of Amdo and Kham now annexed into China’s Qinghai, Sichuan, and Gansu provinces showing the widespread opposition to China’s occupation of Tibet.
For more information please visit: www.tibetanuprising.org
Contact:
Campaign Coordinators:
Tsering Chodup: +91 9418 221 605
Sherab Woeser: +91 9418 394 426 Dhasa /+91 9868 332 883 Delhi
**Lobsang Yeshi is currently being held in detention along with other marchers.
Tsewang Rigzin: +91 9805 247 259 (President, Tibetan Youth Congress)
B. Tsering: +91 9418 792 810 (President, Tibetan Women’s Association)
Ngawang Woebar: +91 9418 102 483 (President, GuChuSum Ex-Political Prisoners’ Mvmt)
Chime Youngdrung: +91 9418 069 179 (President, National Democratic Party of Tibet)
**Tenzin Choeying, President of Students for a Free Tibet India, is currently being held in detention along with other marchers.
There are 6 comment(s) so far ;)
In response to the murder / massacre / ethnic cleansing by China of the Tibetans, we in the rest of the world have the moral duty to do the following:
1) Boycott everything made in China and destroy China economically first. NEVER AGAIN buy products from companies that move manufacturing to China. As it is, Chinese products are life threatening to grown ups just as much as they are to kids:
a) http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/02/us/02toothpaste.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1205658479-X63TBjP1iHKdDHpm8iMNCw&oref=slogin
b) http://www.suntimes.com/news/nation/830980,toothpaste030708.article
c) http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Chinese_toys_toxic_says_health_ministry/articleshow/2328325.cms
d) http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/chinese-toys-toxic-paint-scare/2007/08/02/1185648060454.html
2) The rest of the world is shooting itself in the foot because every time they buy something made in China, they are increasing unemployment for themselves in their own country. Also the Chinese labor is basically living as sub-human slaves in China, and WE are responsible for putting them there by buying things made in such Chinese slave camps/factories.
3) If China continues to kill unarmed Buddhist Tibetans, then the rest of the world should attack China and help the Tibetans liberate their nation from the forceful occupation by the Chinese. If a small country like Vietnam can bring China to its knees (in 2 weeks, the Vietnamese killed 150,000 Chinese soldiers out of the 600,000 Chinese army that dared to invade Vietnam in 1979), then certainly the Tibetans, with the help of the civilized world, can and should teach these savage Chinese a lesson or two.
4) China should be thrown out of the Security Council for such egregious violations of the human rights of Tibetans.
The Chinese think they can get away with anything, but it’s time for the civilized world to teach the brutal Chinese bullies a lesson. For every unarmed innocent Tibetan killed, let the world kill a hundred or a thousand unarmed innocent Chinese. Then they’ll know what it feels to be humiliated and treated like an animal, which, incidentally, the Chinese seem to be.
FREE TIBET. TO HELL WITH A BULLY CHINA.
[…] Via : TibetanUprising.org […]
[…] autonomy) to "show revulsion for Beijing’s goals and abhorrence of its tactics" and the Tibetan People’s Uprising Movement. China Hand makes short work of the Tibet-as-Gaza argument. In other words, think of Tibet as the […]
[…] La Cina ha dato l’ultimatum ai protestanti e ha imposto il blackout delle informazioni. I giornalisti non sono ammessi nel paese, Internet è controllato e Youtube proibito, la stampa cinese e pro-cinese sta diffondendo articoli e comunicati di questo tenore: si sa da fonti interne che è in atto una violenta repressione ma la stampa non sa esattamente cosa accade e come. Il 14 marzo sono uccise almeno 80 tibetani a Lhasa, ma il mondo non deve sapere. Il motivo ufficiale è che sono questioni interne alla Cina. Ma il Tibetan Poeple’s Uprising Movement rivolge un appello perché la violenta repressione si fermi…. […]
Wow, Sidney - you’re as bad as the people you are protesting against. For every single tibetan killed, you’d let hundreds of innocent Chinese people die? Seems as if you don’t think the chinese are people - which means you are a racist, and a thoroughly detestable human being.
I want Tibet to be free - but advocating the murder of chinese people? Advocating the destruction of an entire economy? Condemning 1.3 billion human beings? You are a bad, bad, bad person. You don’t practice what you preach.
Oh and by the way - china has nuclear weapons. No nation on earth would attack them, just as no nation on earth would directly attack the US, or Russia, or the UK.
Free Tibet, yes. But advocating the murder of chinese people? FOR SHAME!
Hopefully international attention will be focused on the Tibetan issue with the Olympics coming to China. Tibet must be freed from the illegal Chinese occupation. I support the boycott of Chinese goods, but I don’t think aggression in return is the answer, unless all other means have been tried.