By Sujeet Kumar
Raipur, May 4 – For the first time in 36 years, hundreds of Tibetan refugees settled in Chhattisgarh are protesting rights abuses by China in their native land.
Many of the refugees and their families, most of whom make a living by selling garments, have launched a two-day hunger strike in this state capital.
They are denouncing “Chinese aggression and continuous suppression of the voice of hundreds of thousands of Tibetans”.
Around 370 odd refugees came to settle mostly in the state’s Sarguja district, 360 km from here, in 1962, years after China occupied Tibet. Today they have a 1,860-strong population.
Some of them are threatening to fast unto death if the Chinese government does not stop what they say is widespread rights abuses against Tibetans.
The Tibetans have dashed off memorandums to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and Indian President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, urging them to isolate China at international forums.
The protest is being led by Tashi Wandu, president of the Tibetan Youth Congress (TYC).
The TYC has organised a similar hunger strike since April 2 before the UN headquarters in New York.
A leader of the Tibetan Women’s Association, who gave her name only as Chodon, told IANS that Tibetan refugees in various parts of India would demonstrate before the Chinese embassy in New Delhi next month.
“We will not give up the battle against China, we want an early settlement of the long-pending Tibet issue through peaceful dialogue,” said Chodon.
“We want the unconditional release of all Tibetan freedom fighters in the custody of the Chinese government and suspension of the death sentence awarded by China to one of our leading freedom fighters, Talku Tenjin Delek Rinpoche.
“We want the setting up of a judicial inquiry by an international agency to probe into custodial killings of Tibetan freedom fighters,” Chodon said.
The spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists, the Dalai Lama, lives in India, having fled Tibet in 1959. He heads a government-in-exile that is based in the hill town of Dharamsala but is not recognised by any country.
India is also home to some 100,000 Tibetan exiles.
