DEHRADUN, India (AFP) - Indian police Wednesday turned back more than 300 Tibetans trying to trek to their homeland in a protest against Chinese rule of the region ahead of the Beijing Olympics, an official said.
The marchers were stopped 180 kilometres (108 miles) from the Indo-Tibetan border after starting their trek in March in India’s Dharamshala where the Tibetan government-in-exile is based, the official said.
“Three hundred and twelve Tibetans were trying to go towards the border. We have sent them back,” district magistrate Senthil Pandian told AFP. (more…)
Tibetan World
APR 25 - MAY 24 2008, Vol IV Issue 8
By Lex Pelger
The March to Tibet has been on the road since March 10 and now approach the Tibetan border. They likely will face another round of arrests in the next few days. You can follow their journey at the Tibetan People’s Uprising Movement website: www.tibetanuprising.org
Tenzin Choedon wants to see her homeland for the first time. She declares, “I have always told my parents I was born in India but I want to die in Tibet.” The 24-year-old Tibetan girl gave up everything to be the nurse for the March to Tibet. She broke the contract for her first nursing job after college and will have to pay a 30,000Rs (750 USD) penalty to get back her nursing certificates. She left without telling her family because she knew they would not approve. “I have the world of my family, my schooling, my career and I have the world of freedom for my people. I choose to give up the first to work for the second.” She plans to cross the Tibetan border, facing torture or death from the Chinese police, and lances the blisters of monks and nuns along the way. (more…)
NEW DELHI (AFP) - Hundreds of Tibetan exiles vowed Thursday to press on with a trek home ahead of the Beijing Olympics despite Indian police detaining some of their leaders this week.
The marchers, who left the seat of the Tibetan government-in-exile in Dharamshala on March 10, were now less than 200 kilometres from the Tibetan border, said Pema Dorjee, one of the 300 exiles making up the group. (more…)
Washington Post
By Krittivas Mukherjee
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - A group of Tibetan exiles marching towards China said on Thursday that Indian police had impounded their food trucks and arrested their leaders to break up a protest walk that began almost three months ago.
Tibetan exiles, now numbering about 300, began walking on March 10 from the northern Indian hill town of Dharamsala, the seat of their spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, to join in protests against Chinese rule inside Tibet. (more…)
AsiaNews
Mumbai - The presidents of the five NGOs leading the Tibetan exiles’ “Return March to Tibet” were arrested yesterday morning in Berinath, in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand. Tsewang Rigzin (Tibetan Youth Congress), B Tsering (Tibetan Women’s Association), Ngawang Woebar (GuChuSum or former Tibetan political prisoners’ movement), Chime Youngdrung (National Democratic Party of Tibet,) and Tenzin Choeying (Students for a Free Tibet) were still detained by Indian police as of yesterday afternoon.
The five leaders were supposed to meet the District Magistrate of Pithoragarh (Uttarakhand) to appeal for a permit to continue the march. (more…)
by Nirmala Carvalho
Nainital (AsiaNews) - Authorities in the northern Indian state of Uttaranchal detained 19 Tibetans last Thursday for taking part in the ‘Return march to Tibet’ and jailed them without any formal charge. The remaining marchers declared that they were determined to continue the march in solidarity with Tibet and against Chinese repression in the region.
“We 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. We must continue to remind the world that Tibetans continue to face killings, beatings, arbitrary detentions and disappearances, an oppressive military presence, and a terrible climate of fear under Chinese occupation,” Tsewang Rigzin, president of the Tibetan Youth Congress, told AsiaNews.
“On Thursday around 50 police came and arrested the marchers, they have not yet been released. The police told us that they had been directed by the central government to stop the return march. We appeal for the immediate release of all those detained and expect that the matter will be resolved peacefully,” said B. Tsering, president of the Tibetan Women’s Association.
For China the march is a great provocation for the marchers intend to reach Tibet on foot in time for the start of the Beijing Olympics.
The governments of India and Nepal have expressed their disappointment vis-à-vis the Tibetans living on their territory, warning them that “anti-Chinese acts will not be tolerated.”
Times of India
NEW DELHI - In a strange move, at a time when the government is promoting “Come to India - Walk with the Buddha” to attract foreign tourists to Buddhist circuit in the country, five foreigners have been given Quit India notice to leave the country within seven days “for participating in a religious activity”.
James Petersen, Lex Pelger and David Huang from US, Maryla Cross from UK and Paul Christians Buntz from Norway were given the notices for “violating the visa rules” by Pithoragarh SP Puran Singh Rawat on Friday as they reached Banspatan in Uttarkhand’s border district with the Tibetan marchers who have been walking towards Tibet since March 10.
While 19 Tibetans were jailed on Friday, the foreigners were detained for a while, given the notice and asked to leave the area immediately. (more…)
International Herald Tribune
May 26, 2008
LUCKNOW, India (AP): More than 300 Tibetan exiles have been stopped by authorities in northern India from marching to Tibet, an official said Monday.
The demonstrators, including Buddhist monks and nuns carrying pictures of the Dalai Lama and “Free Tibet” banners, planned to arrive in their homeland to coincide with the Beijing Olympics Games.
“They’ve been stopped and we are trying to persuade them to return to Dharmsala. They will not be allowed to march ahead,” said Amit Chandola, a senior Uttarakhand state official. (more…)
New Delhi, May 19 (DPA) - More than 300 Tibetans who were stopped from marching to Lhasa on India’s border with China’s Tibetan Autonomous Region have resorted to camping in the area, a news agency reported Monday. The group of Tibetans, which was marching to Lhasa to protest against China’s alleged atrocities in Tibet and to demand Tibetan independence, were stopped by Indian authorities in the Pithoragarh district of Uttarakhand state, the Press Trust of India reported.
The Tibetan marchers, mostly monks, were camping in the Seraghat area in the district that lies more than 400 kilometres north-east of Indian capital New Delhi. (more…)
By Jaideep Sarin
Almora (Uttarakhand), May 15 (IANS) - Tibetan activists in India are readying themselves for another showdown with China before the Beijing Olympics. They are now just 200 km from India’s border with the Tibet Autonomous Region where they plan to “sacrifice lives” in a desperate bid to get back to their “homeland”. However, the showdown may well be with Indian security forces, who are unlikely to allow the demonstrators to get anywhere near the international border.
Having traversed over 900 km, starting March 10 from the Himalayan abode-in-exile of Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama at Dharamsala in Himachal Pradesh, the “March to Tibet” is headed towards the Tibet border through arduous Himalayan terrain in Uttarakhand state. (more…)
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