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Tibetan group launches petition for official adoption of Tibetan National Day on February 13
Phayul[Thursday, February 21, 2013 17:33]
DHARAMSHALA, February 21: In what is being billed as the first petition ever to be directed to the Dharamshala based exile Tibetan administration, a Tibetan organisation in Switzerland is requesting for the official adoption of ‘Tibetan National Day’ on February 13.
The Tibetan Youth Association in Europe launched the petition drive last week during an event organised in Rikon, Switzerland, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Tibetan Proclamation of Independence declared by His Holiness the 13th Dalai Lama.
Organisers said the Europe-wide petition is the first petition ever directed to the Central Tibetan Administration, addressing the exile Tibetan minister and members of Parliament. The group noted that through the petition, Tibetan MPs representing Europe, Ven. Thubten Wangchen and Chungdak Koren, will be requested to table a motion during the forthcoming parliamentary session requesting the adoption of a Tibetan National Day on February 13.
The petition, which can be signed online at www.be-tibet.com, will be handed over to the two Tibetan MPs prior to the parliamentary session to be held in the exile headquarters of Dharamshala, north India in September later this year.
The event marking the centennial celebrations in Rikon was attended by some 350 Tibetans and supporters. An exhibition portraying Tibet’s independence, a talk on 100 years of the Tibetan Independence Proclamation by Prof. Karénina Kollmar- Paulenz, and a panel discussion on the same topic were the highlights of the event.
Panelists included Kelsang Gyaltsen, Special Representative of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to Europe, Ven. Thubten Wangchen, MP, Tenzin Dorjee, Executive Director of Students for a Free Tibet, and others.
Tenzin Kelden Losinger-Namseling, president of TYAE said the event helped to raise awareness about the fact that, Tibet was a free and independent country at the time of the Chinese invasion in 1950.
“It had all the characteristics needed to be recognised as an independent nation, even more so after the reassertion of Tibet’s independence by His Holiness the 13th Dalai Lama on February 13, 1913. His speech was written down and spread throughout Tibet,” Kelden said.
“We received a lot of positive feedback on how important it is for us Tibetans not to forget this fact and to be proud of our heritage and homeland.”
The global students network, Students for a Free Tibet, earlier announced that starting from this year, the group will be commemorating Tibetan Independence Day on February 13 as a “powerful tool to challenge China’s propaganda about Tibetan history as well as to strengthen the case for Tibetan self-determination on the global stage.”
Six Tibetan monks detained for pro-independence protest on Tibetan new year eve
Phayul[Thursday, February 21, 2013 17:33]
By Phuntsok Yangchen
DHARAMSHALA, February 21: Chinese authorities in eastern Tibet arrested six Tibetan monks on the eve of Tibetan new year for their alleged involvement in a protest calling for the return of His Holiness the Dalai Lama from exile and independence for Tibet.
According to exile sources, monks of the Drakdhib Monastery in the Markham region of eastern Tibet, staged a protest on February 10 after Chinese authorities restricted them from performing religious rituals and carried out forced patriotic re-education at the monastery.
The monks then carried out a protest, raising slogans for the return of His Holiness the Dalai Lama from exile and Tibet’s independence, following which all of them were detained by Chinese security forces.
However, after protests by local Tibetans, all the detainees were released except for the six monks on February 13.
Further details on the six detained monks and the protest are currently unavailable due to severe clampdown on the internet and phone lines in the region, sources added. The current condition and whereabouts of the monks also remain unknown.
Following the protest, a large number of Chinese security forces have been deployed in the region, blocking all roads to and from the Monastery.
In August last year, Chinese security personnel in the same region shot dead www.phayul.com/news/article.aspx?id=31913&t=1 a Tibetan man for taking part in an anti-mining protest.
Around a thousand Tibetans had marched to the Chinese-owned mining site in Markham mid-August, protesting the large-scale operations, which they said was environmentally hazardous. Chinese security personnel responded by firing tear gas and live rounds on the protesters, leading to the death of the Tibetan male identified as Nyima and the arrest of six others.
Many areas of Tibet continue to remain under a state of undeclared martial law following the ongoing wave of self-immolation which has witnessed 104 known Tibetans living under China’s rule set themselves on fire demanding the return of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and freedom for Tibet.
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