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Dharamshala Tibetans protest on China's 60th anniversary

By Lobsang Wangyal

Tibetans holding their national flag at the Tsuglakhang temple in Dharamshala, India, on 1 October 2009, as they stage a protest on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China.Tibet Sun/Lobsang Wangyal/India

Tibetans exiles living in Dharamshala staged a protest march as China celebrated the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China.

Waving Tibetan flags and banners, the protesters shouted slogans including “Free Tibet” and “Long live the Dalai Lama” to protest what they called 50 years of Chinese oppression.

China celebrated its 60th anniversary with the biggest-ever display of military parades, held amidst tightest-ever security, and lavish pageantry, with its top leader Hu Jintao saying “only socialism can save the country.”

However, it was a day of mourning for Tibetans, who said that Chinese rule has brought untold suffering to their people, the killing of over a million Tibetans, political persecution, and the destruction of the environment at an alarming rate.

“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, we in the free world are bestowed with,” a statement released by the organisers of the march said.

Tibetans called for China to end its one-party autocratic rule, embrace democracy, and show respect for human rights and individual freedoms.

Four Tibetan NGOs — the Tibetan Women’s Association, the National Democratic Party of Tibet, the Gu Chu Sum Movement of Tibet and the Students for a Free Tibet – India — organised the rally, which was joined by a few hundred exiles and foreign supporters.

Copyright © 2009 Tibet Sun

Published in Tibet Sun