Tibetans protest against Chinese oppression

Tibetans protest against Chinese oppression

8 February 2012

SILIGURI, 8 FEB: Thousands of Tibetans from Sikkim and Darjeeling Hills took out a rally here today to protest against the alleged trampling of the Tibetan Dharma and rampant killing of the protesters by the Communist regime in China.
The rally comprising women and children started at Darjeeling More and ended at the court here. The participants carried coffins to mark the procession of self-immolations involving nuns and monks in the Buddhist state that China keeps under its suzerainty since 1959. Nineteen incidents of self-immolations have occurred in Tibet since March last year. Besides, over six Tibetans were killed as police opened fire on 23 and 24 January on agitators who were protesting against being forced to celebrate the Chinese New Year. Two members of the Tibetan parliament representing the Tibetan government-in-exile based in Dharamsala in Himachal Pradesh, Ms Dhardon Sharling and Mrs Dolkar Kirti also walked with the participants.
They served a letter addressed to the Prime Minister of India, Manmohan Singh through the office of the sub-divisional officer, asking for India’s intervention to end what they termed the Chinese authoritarian tyranny over the Dharma-abiding innocents in Tibet. “We also plead that the United Nations should send a fact-finding mission to Tibet to have an on the spot study of the fast worsening situation,” Ms Sharling said.
“We, the Tibetans, are grateful to India for providing shelter and succour to the struggling Tibetans in this hour of crisis. India, the timeless repository of spiritual values, should not be cowed down by the arm-twisting Chinese diplomacy,” she said. sns