Tibetan activists held for protests outside Chinese Embassy

Phayul[Thursday, October 01, 2009 18:13]
By Phurbu Thinley

Dharamsala, Oct 1: Indian Police on Thursday arrested more than 20 Tibetans when they tried to swarm the Chinese embassy in New Delhi.

The demonstrations came as China celebrated the 60-year anniversary of communist rule with a massive military parade in Beijing.

"The 21 Tibetan men were arrested around 9.30 am. They were attempting to jump the wall of the embassy and were taken into custody," IANS reported a senior police official as saying.

The protest was reportedly organized by the pro-independence group Tibetan Youth Congress, the largest non-governmental organization in the exile Tibetan community.

The protestors carrying black flags and draped in Tibetan national flag assembled in front of the Chinese Embassy in the high-security Chanakyapuri area to lodge their protest against Chinese rule in Tibet. The activists later attempted to enter the premises of the Chinese embassy when they were arrested by police.

"They have made their country rich by sucking people's blood. They do not follow the path of truth. They kill our people and make their country rich,” another media reported quoted a protestor as saying.

"They (Chinese) are showing their power to the entire country. They are even trying to attack India. We Tibetan Youth Congress (TYC) cannot sit quite. India is like our guide and we can even lay down our lives for it,” another protestor said.

Led by four other major Tibetans organizations, similar noisy street protests by hundreds of Tibetans and their supporters were also carried out in Dharamsala, the seat of the Tibet’s Government in exile in northern India.

Under the protest banner “60 years of Tyranny”, the exile Tibetan NGOs marked the occasion to call for democracy in China and other colonized regions by bringing to an end to the “repressive Chinese Communist regime”.

The protesters claimed that life in Tibet remains a day-to-day struggle to protect their culture and livelihood from Chinese tyranny.

“The exile Tibetan NGOs, in deepest solidarity with the people of China, Tibet and East Turkestan stand united in opposition to the tyrannical rule of the Chinese Government,” said a joint statement issued to day by Tibetan Women’s Association, Gu-Chu-Sum Movement of Tibet, National Democratic Party of Tibet and Students for a Free Tibet, India.

“Despite much change and economic progress in China in the last 60 years, the people of China live under the abject deprivation of the basic human rights that,” it added.

“Today the Communist Chinese regime is celebrating 60th anniversary of its founding and we are gathered here to protest the 60 years of brutal occupation and oppression of Tibet and the Tibetan people,” Tibetan Youth Congress President Mr Tsewang Rigzin told a protest gathering in Dharamsala.

“This celebration in Beijing today is an insult to injury and to hide the crimes they have committed on the people of Tibet, Inner Mongolia, East Turkestan and China,” he added.

A candle light vigil has been planned to be carried out later in the evening here.

This year also marks 50 years in exile for Tibetans since China took complete control over Tibet following a failed uprising against China in 1959. Tibetan exiles have pledged to make 2009 an action year for Tibet by organizing series of protests.