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Taiwan's DPP designates 10 March as Tibet Day

By YL Kao | Central News Agency

A file photo of Taiwan’s Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Frank Hsieh stands beside flames after lighting them during an election campaign rally held with Free Tibet activists in Taipei on 19 March 2008.File photo/Reuters/Russell Boyce/Taiwan

The opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has passed a resolution designating 10 March as ‘Tibet Day’ and specifying that it will be observed in cities and counties around the country that are governed by the party, DPP spokesman Cheng Wen-tsang said Thursday.

DPP Chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen will attend activities geared toward supporting the cause of the Tibetan people and protesting against what the DPP sees as infringements on their political and human rights, Cheng said.

The announcement came after a DPP meeting at which Tseng Chien-yuan, one of the leaders of the civic group Taiwan Friends of Tibet, gave a report on the current human rights situation in Tibet.

This year, Tibetans in Taiwan cancelled Losar — celebrations of the Tibetan New Year which fell on 25 February — in protest of the violent crackdown on anti-China demonstrations on 14 March last year.

Tibetans are marking the 50th anniversary this year of the failed 1959 Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule that forced the Dalai Lama, their spiritual leader, to flee into exile in India.

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