The answer to this question are many and varied. India’s economy is victim to China’s unfair trade practices of dumping cheap goods produced from slave labour in prisons; dumping nuclear and other toxic wastes at the source of Asia’s major rivers; to the horrendous massacre of peaceful student protesters at Tiananmen and to the escalating military build-up along the entire length of the Himalayas. But the primary reason is China’s invasion of Tibet, once ruled by the Dalai Lamas, now under China’s military occupation. Tibetans living in exile in India protest whenever a Chinese leader visits India because they see the visit as an insult to the memory of the more than ten lakh Tibetans who died as a direct result of China’s invasion and occupation of their country.
In Tibet and other countries like East Turkestan and Southern Mongolia, which are under China’s colonial rule, freedom of expression and religion are restricted and China continues to use ‘war against terrorism’ as a pretext to crack down on peaceful dissent. The situation in occupied Tibet continues to be the same with more and more people being executed for their involvement in ‘political’ activities. Today China tops the world with the highest number of executions. According to Amnesty International; out of 7,395 executions in the year 2004 carried out in 25 countries, 3,400 were in China followed by Saudi Arabia and the United States.
Even though China claims to have brought ‘development in Tibet’ and that ‘Tibetans are happy under Chinese rule’, there is no decline in the number of Tibetans crossing the border to seek freedom in India and also to learn their language, religion and culture.The UNHCR estimates that every month between 200 to 300 Tibetans reach the Refugee Reception Centre in Nepal to cross into India. The recent killing of two Tibetan refugees, including a nun, at the Nangpa Pass on September 30, 2006 is just one incident in the ongoing crimes committed by China’s military rulers in Tibet.
China’s threat to world peace does not end with the occupation and militarisation of Tibet. China continues to occupy India’s Aksai Chin in the Himalayas. The rampant mining of Tibet; heavy deforestation; damming rivers originating from Tibet; creating artificial lakes like Pareechoo result in floods in India and other Asian countries. Tibet is the source of Asia’s major rivers. The recent news about China planning to dam the Brahmaputra and to divert its waters is ominous. China’s attack on India in 1962 was at a time when India was extending friendship saying “Hindi-Chini-Bhai-Bhai”. And today India is spending 63-crores a day to protect her people from a ‘friendly’ neighbour!
We want to remind Hu Jintao that the people of Tibet do not want to live under Chinese rule and that the Tibetans want China to get out of Tibet.
At the same time we want the people of India to face the reality that only an independent Tibet can guarantee lasting peace and security for India.
