Washington, D.C. – Tibetans and supporters will demonstrate at the Chinese Embassy in Washington D.C. in response to the brutal killings of Tibetan refugees attempting to escape from Tibet into Nepal. Protesters shall converge at the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C. at 2pm EST. Video footage shot by foreign mountaineers at Cho Oyu advance Everest base camp, shows Chinese border guards opening fire on a group of approximately 70 Tibetans attempting to cross through the Nangpa Pass into Nepal on September 30th.
It has been confirmed that the shootings killed at least two Tibetans including a young nun. At least nine Tibetan children who were part of the group were captured by Chinese soldiers at gunpoint; their whereabouts remain unknown. More than 40 of the original group are reported to have safely made it to Nepal.
“These killings of unarmed Tibetan refugees expose yet again that the reality of China’s rule in Tibet is far from the picture painted by the Chinese government,” said Kalaya’an Mendoza of Students for a Free Tibet. “More than 50 years after the invasion of their country, Tibetans continue to flee Tibet in search of basic freedoms and to escape the everyday brutality and oppression of Chinese occupation. The only solution is Tibetan independence, period.”
The foreign mountaineers who witnessed the incident from nearby Cho Oyu advance base camp described soldiers taking careful aim and fired repeatedly at the defenseless Tibetans, even as they attempted to escape uphill through deep snow at 19,000 feet. One climber explained, “I saw a line of Tibetans heading toward the start of the Nangpa Pass-a common sight. Then, without warning, shots rang out, over and over and over.”
“This is hardly the first such incident. The difference is that the world is witness to the evidence. We demand that the Chinese government immediately release all the detained refugees and halt their unrelenting violence against the Tibetan people,” said Tenzin Kalden, President of the Regional Tibetan Youth Congress of New York and New Jersey. “This incident belies all the Chinese authority’s attempts to appear as a responsible member of the international community worthy of hosting the 2008 Olympics.”
“ Everyday Tibetans in Tibet make the most difficult of choices, to leave their families and homeland in their quest for basic freedom and human rights,” said Rinzin Dolkar of the Tibetan Womens Association of New York and New Jersey “This shooting of defenseless Tibetan refugees epitomizes China’s brutality and blatant disregard for Tibetan life.”
This is a critically important issue for Tibetan exiles, including the thousands of Tibetan refugees who themselves escaped from Tibet in a similar fashion. Tibetans and supporters of Tibetan independence and human rights have already staged protests in San Francisco, London, New York, Toronto and Vancouver. Similar protests are planned for New Delhi, Zurich, Paris, Hong Kong and Dharamsala.
