TYC protest at Chinese embassy on the eve of Tibetan Uprising day, 80 detained/ENG

2018. március 9./Phayul.com/TibetPress

eredeti cikk

By Tenzin Dharpo

DHARAMSHALA, Mar. 9: Tibetan activists from the largest pro-independence group Tibetan Youth Congress earlier today protested at the Chinese embassy it the Indian capital, a day before the 10th March ‘Tibetan Uprising Day’ anniversary. Over 80 activists have been detained by the Indian police, shortly after the protest began, sources said.

The activists, many of them carrying placards reading “Free Tibet”, “Tibet’s independence, India’s Security” and their faces and half naked bodies painted with the Tibetan national flag, shouted slogans at the Chinese embassy. The organization which has by far the most extensive grassroots reach in the Tibetan diaspora said that their resistance to China will continue as long as Beijing’s hardline policies exists in occupied Tibet. TYC has called for the end of Chinese rule in Tibet.

The police shortly herded over 80 activists into buses and detained them at the Chanakyapuri police station. Noted former political prisoner and monk, Bhakdro and TYC’s Social Service Secretary Tashi Thargyal, are among the detainees.

The organization’s Information Secretary Tsewang Dolma told Phayul that the protest had to be conducted a day before the actual anniversary of the 59th March Tibetan Uprising day anniversary for purely technical reasons as the Chinese embassy is closed on Saturday, which coincides tomorrow on 10th March. “We just met police officials and they have agreed to release the activists by tonight, they will be released,” Tsewang said expectantly.

On Saturday falls the 59th anniversary of the 1959 uprising in Lhasa city where common Tibetans guarded the Norbulinka palace against a thwarted effort by Chinese forces to isolate the Dalai Lama, inviting him for a cultural performance. The ensuing rebellion later resulted in the death of an estimated 87,000 Tibetans according to exile Tibetan government reports.

5 major Tibetan NGO’s including TYC, the Tibetan Women’s Association, Gu-Chu-Sum Movement Association of Tibet, National Democratic Party of Tibet and Students for a Free Tibet-India will conduct a peace march from Tsuklakhang to Dharamshala police ground on Saturday. Also planned are screening of documentary films on the 2008 Uprising on March 11, public talk on March 13 and a mass peace march at Jantar Mantar in Delhi on March 14, commemorating 10 year anniversary of the 2008 pan-Tibet uprising.