GuChuSum President Kusho Ngawang Woeber and March Coordinator Tsering Choedup travelled to Rebkong Piu to learn about the situation of the 31 marchers who were arrested while they attempted to cross the India border to Tibet on June 19. Permission for the visit was granted thanks to the efforts of Shimla RTYC President and Shimla Tenzin la who is also a member of the Local Assembly.
From the 31 marchers arrested, 10 who had crossed the inner line were released this morning on personal bond after a hearing before the Chief Judicial Magistrate of Rebkong Piu. Ten others were released on assurity and personal bond from Rampur. The other 11 marchers have their hearing on June 26 before the Sub Judicial Magistrate at Rebkong Piu. The Organizing Committee is working on the documents for their release.
Tenzin Choeying, National Director of Students for a Free Tibet India, Lobsang Yeshi, March Coordintor and Tenzin Tsundue, activist and award winning poet, had their 4th hearing before the Dehra Sub Divisional Magistrate regarding the ongoing case from their arrest in March. Two witnesses - a local videographer and Sub Inspector Bhagat Singh Thakur - made statements after being cross-examined by the lawyer for the three. They are being charged with ‘threatening to breach public peace and tranquility’. The statements from the cross-examination were recorded and will be used for the final judgment which has been postponed until August 27.
The defending lawyer, Mr. Jitendra Rana is a volunteer with the Human Rights Law Network which is based in Delhi. Mr Rana runs its Dharamshala chapter with his lawyer colleagues.
In total, 169 marchers have been imprisoned since the beginning of the March and all marchers, including the presidents have been arrested once or twice.
All the marchers, who were stopped at the Indo-Tibet border area in Uttarakhand State and forcibly sent to Ponta Sahib, hung a banner at their campsite today to protest media censorship in Tibet. Since the massive uprising of the Tibetan people in Tibet on March 10 this year, the Chinese government has refused all media access to Tibet. The lack of foreign journalists and tourists guarantee that Chinese government can get away with its atrocious human rights violations in Tibet.
Tibetan People’s Uprising Movement strongly condemns the Chinese Government’s denial of media freedom and demands immediate access to Tibet for any foreign journalists.
The marchers rested at Askote today. Askote’s King Bhanu Raj Singh Pal invited the presidents and the March coordinators to his palace for tea where he expressed his support for the Tibetan movement and the March to Tibet. The Kind also invited all the marchers to lunch the following day.
Lhakpa Tsering, a marcher and an executive member of the Tibetan Youth Congress, sponsored today’s lunch. The organizing committee prepared the lunch for the marchers, giving the kitchen staff a much appreciated break.
The marchers left their campsite at 7am this morning. As they walked through the Didihat market, local Indians received the marchers very warmly and wished them well on their journey home.
They walked 21 km to reach their campsite at Askote at 1pm. Representatives from Kirti Monastery in Dharamsala came to visit Shingza Rinpoche, one of the core marchers, and the others. They kindly donated money to sponsor tomorrow night’s dinner and supplied the marchers with refreshments. The marchers are extremely grateful for their generosity.
In the evening, the marchers watched the film “Devotion and Defiance” about the lack of religious freedom in Tibet. The film made the marchers all very emotional about the suffering of their brothers and sisters inside Tibet. It also strengthened their conviction to reach their homeland.
The marchers left their campsite at 7am this morning and walked 18 km to reach Didihat at 1:30pm. They are spending the night in Didihat, at the exact spot where hundreds of Tibetan refugees stayed during their escape from Tibet after the 1959 Uprising.
Many Tibetan refugees remained in the area for about 5 years, doing road construction work, before eventually moving to Dharamsala or one of the other Tibetan settlements. Because of their interaction with Tibetan refugees in the past, many local Indians can still speak some Tibetan language.
With the Himalayas in sight and the history of their current campsite revealed, the marchers feel close to home.
“We are walking on the same road that our Tibetan brothers and sisters took when they were escaping Chinese persecution in Tibet,” said Tenzin Choeying, National Coordinator of Students for a Free Tibet, India. “We are returning to Tibet, not because everything is fine there, but precisely because our brethren need our help to end China’s occupation.”
After the restart of the March on June 9, the 50 marchers spent their first night at Belakot, 15 kilometers beyond Berinag.
The marchers were excited and encouraged to see the Himalayan ranges on the horizon as they started out on this leg of their journey.
The marchers left their campsite at Belakot this morning at 9:30am. They walked 21 kilometers to reach Gochar around 2:30pm. Along the way a landslide blocked the road, forcing the march vehicles to take a much longer route to the campsite.
At 8:45am today, 260 marchers departed from their campsite at Banspatan after a 13-day standoff with the police. As we write this update, we’re hearing reports that the marchers are walking in the rain and entering the town of Berinag after walking 16 kilometers. Witness reports confirm that there are several truckloads of police passing the marchers as they walked in line, singing and praying.
With a distance of 180 kilometers seperating them from the border, the marchers are determined to continue the march. The rain has stopped, but the singing and praying go on.
“When the clouds part, you can see Tibet on the horizon,” said Ven. Ngawang Woebar.
He dipped his face in the river at Banspatan, and joked that monks don’t need to use soap because they have renounced vanity. A couple of hours later, Ven. Woeber was arrested. A former political prisoner, he is the president of Gu Chu Sum, one of the five organizations coordinating the historic March to Tibet, which started in Dharamsala on March 10th. Along with him, five other leaders of the march were also arrested on Tuesday and formally jailed yesterday afternoon in Haridwar Jail. The other detainees are Tsewang Rigzin, President of Tibetan Youth Congress; B Tsering, President of Tibetan Women’s Association, Chime Youngdroung, President of the National Democratic Party of Tibet, Tenzin Choeying, National Director of Students for a Free Tibet India, and Lobsang Yeshi, Coordinator of the March to Tibet. (more…)
On May 27, an estimated force of 1000 police blocked the entrance to the marchers’ current camp at Banspatan. Police ordered the 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 on May 28.
The 19 Tibetan marchers detained since May 22nd and 23rd have been released. March coordinator Lobsang Yeshi and core marcher Tenzin Tsundue were released last night and briefly taken to a local hospital. They had staged a hunger strike since they were first arrested on May 22nd and required medical care, but were subsequently dropped at the campsite. The other 17 marchers, who were refusing food, were taken back to the campsite early this morning.
The marchers are at the same campsite in Banspatan, Uttarakhand State.
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