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Tibetans protest outside Chinese embassy in India

By Ashok Sharma | AP

Indian policemen arrest a Tibetan activist wearing only his underwear during a protest in New Delhi on 13 April 2009. Tibetan students organised a naked protest at the Chinese embassy against the ongoing situation in Tibet. A court in Tibet has condemned two people to die for their roles in violent riots in Lhasa last year, China’s state media said on 8 April, the first death sentences reported over the deadly unrest.AFP/Getty Images/Prakash Singh/India

Nine Tibetan students were detained by police Monday after they stripped and chained themselves to barbed wire fencing outside the Chinese Embassy to protest the sentencing to death of two Tibetans by a Chinese court, police said.

Police used wire cutters to remove the chains, bundled the protesters in their underwear into vans and whisked them away. They would likely be produced in a New Delhi court later Monday, said a police officer, speaking on condition of anonymity as she was not authorised to talk to reporters.

Organisers said that 10 Tibetan students participated in the protest, but police only detained nine. It was unclear what happened to the other protester.

Tibetan exiles have stepped up demonstrations since last month, observing the 50th anniversary of Beijing’s crushing of a Tibetan uprising that led to the Dalai Lama’s flight into exile in the northern Indian town of Dharamshala.

The students Monday were protesting a Chinese court ruling earlier this month that handed down death sentences to two Tibetans accused of starting deadly fires in last year’s anti-government riots in Tibet. It was the first report of death sentences given out for the deadly riots.

“There is an immense crackdown and brutality being imposed on the Tibetan people inside Tibet. We have lost everything, our home, family, friends, relatives and even our basic rights to live as human beings,” said Dorjee Tsetan, a Tibetan student who participated in Monday’s protest.

Another student, Rabgyal Tsering, said his parents were arrested and imprisoned last year in Tibet for participating in a peaceful protest and did not know their present condition.

“I came here to ask the Chinese government to release my parents and all other innocent Tibetans who were unjustifiably imprisoned for expressing their sufferings,” he said in a statement.

Organisers said in a statement that the students stripped to protest “the ongoing repression in Tibet and to show their solidarity to the Tibetans inside Tibet.”

Copyright © 2009 AP

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