A New movement for Rangzen Struggle/ENG

2012. március 15./Phayul.com/TibetPress

DHARAMSHALA, March 15: A roundtable conference of Rangzen (independence) advocates in New York has resolved to create a new movement for the Rangzen Struggle.

Three special committees were also set-up to implement the resolutions passed at the conference after two days of deliberations on March 11 and 12.

Convened by the Rangzen Alliance, 62 advocates of complete independence for Tibet from seven countries held discussions on the possible scenarios the Tibetan issue might encounter in the near future and the strategies that must be formulated to advance and ultimately achieve the goal of Tibetan Independence.

In his introductory remarks, spokesman for the Rangzen Alliance, Jamyang Norbu said the ongoing wave of self-immolations and resurgence of mass protests in Tibet “appears to be just the visible tip of a far greater unrest spreading across the plateau.”

“In such a volatile situation, it is conceivable that a window of opportunity might present itself for the advancement of the Tibetan struggle,” he added.

Norbu, a well-known Rangzen activist and award-winning writer, also made a historical reference to this year’s March 26 centenary anniversary of the 1912 declaration of war against imperial China by Tibet.

Nearly a year of hard and brutal fighting later, Tibetans ended the Manchu invasion of Tibet leading to the formal declaration of independence by the Great 13th Dalai Lama in 1913.

Presentations were made by Tsewang Rigzin, president of the Tibetan Youth Congress, Lukar Jam, former political prisoner and vice-president of Gu-Chu-Sum Ex-political Prisoners’ Movement, and well-known activist Tenzin Tsundue.

The delegates included activists, university students, doctors, lawyers, designers, writers, journalists, university professors, poets, professional musicians, filmmakers, artists, industrialists, former government officials, and former members of the resistance force.

The discussions were moderated by Tenzin Dorjee, executive director of Students for a Free Tibet and Lhadon Tethong of Tibet Action Institute.

The first in the series of Rangzen meetings was held in the Tibetan exile seat of Dharamshala in 2007 followed by meetings in the US, Europe, Shimla and Bylakuppe.