Tibetan Uprising

For Immediate Release
May 29, 2008

Contact: Tenzin Choedon (English, Tibetan, Hindi): +91 975 696 9133
Pema Dorjee (English): +91 992 760 6204

TIBETAN MARCHERS DETERMINED TO CONTINUE DESPITE MASSIVE POLICE PRESENCE
Tibetan Leaders Still Detained, Food Shortage Imminent as Supply Trucks Confiscated

Nainital - Tibetan marchers are determined to continue their March to Tibet despite a massive Indian police build-up blockading their planned route just 200 kilometers from the Indo-Tibetan border in Uttaranchal State. The police have obstructed the marchers’ movement to and from their campsite 80 km from Almora, and on Tuesday authorities forcibly removed three utility trucks. Early this morning, authorities confiscated the fourth and last supply truck, raising fears of an imminent food shortage.

The heads of the five non-governmental organizations (NGOs) organizing the march, along with the March coordinator, remained in detention after being arrested on May 27th. According to the latest reports, the six detained Tibetan leaders were transferred to the police station at Haldwani, Uttaranchal State.

“In the past months, the March to Tibet has grown into a nonviolent force of 300 determined marchers and even now many Tibetans are on the move to join us,” said Sherab Woeser, a coordinator of the March to Tibet. “The Indian authorities are escalating the situation in their efforts to stop the march, with many hundreds of police stationed along the road, but the 300 marchers remain committed to returning to Tibet.”

On Tuesday an estimated force of 1000 police blocked the camp entrance. Police ordered marchers to turn back or risk being arrested. In response, the marchers immediately crossed a dry riverbed, and staged a Gandhian style sit-in - chanting prayers, and singing the Tibetan national anthem. The stalemate lasted for an hour before the police retreated and eventually left the campsite. The same scenario occurred again yesterday.

The Tibetan marchers have declared that they are “marching in solidarity and support for our Tibetan brothers and sisters inside Tibet who are living under a state of siege by Chinese authorities and call on the Indian authorities to immediately allow the march to continue.”

“At a time when Tibetans inside Tibet continue to be detained, disappeared, tortured and killed for their beliefs it is our responsibility to tell the world of their suffering and show China that Tibetans everywhere are determined to regain our freedom,” said Karma Sichoe, a member of the organizing committee who participated in the 1998 hunger strike that ended in Thupten Ngodup’s self-immolation. “With the Olympics less than three months away, and Tibetans suffering behind the curtain of silence Chinese leaders have drawn around Tibet, we are calling on Tibetans everywhere to rise up and join us.”

The March to Tibet started on March 10th from Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh, and reached Seraghat after traversing through many states over the course of 68 days. On the fourth day of the March, the first group of 100 marchers were arrested and put under judicial custody for 14 days. However, a second group of 48 Tibetan exiles resumed the March two days after the arrest and were joined by the first group soon after their release.

Tibetans living in exile in India launched the March to Tibet as part of the Tibetan People’s Uprising Movement. On the same day that the march was launched, monks from monasteries in Lhasa, as well as in eastern Tibet, led nonviolent demonstrations, shouting slogans supporting the Dalai Lama and independence for Tibet. Chinese authorities brutally suppressed peaceful protests that continued for days, leading to rioting in the capital and a wave of large public demonstrations that have rippled across the country.

The March to Tibet and the Tibetan People’s Uprising Movement aim to revive the spirit of the Tibetan National Uprising of 1959, and engage in nonviolent direct action to bring about an end to China’s illegal occupation of Tibet.

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