By Tenzin Tsering
Dharamsala, 30 September : Gu Chu Sum Movement, an exile organization of ex political prisoners, concluded its 5th General Body Meeting yesterday. The meeting began on Monday.
The members of Gu Chu Sum met with the Tibetan leader, the Dalai Lama in a special audience yesterday.
Woeser Rinpoche, a monk of Sera Mey Monastery in Bylakuppe, was elected the President of Gu Chu Sum with 14 other executive members for the next three years.
“The aims and aspirations of the organization will continue to strengthen and there will be no changes in our political stand,” said the newly elected President of the NGO, which works towards achieving Tibetan independence.
Gu Chu Sum was established in 1991 in Dharamsala by ex political prisoners who had experienced oppression and torture under the Chinese rule. The NGO was formed to provide assistance to the Tibetan political prisoners in Chinese prisons and to work for their release. It also strives to provide assistance to the ex political prisoners living in exile.
Woeser Rinpche appealed to the members of the NGO to work together with sincerity and unity for the common cause of Tibet and its people.
The outgoing president of the organization Ven Ngawang Woeber spoke of the challenges the NGO faces, particularly in distinguishing and identifying true accounts of information submitted by new arrivals from Tibet. He said sometimes it takes months to confirm the information provided to them.
Gu Chu Sum is based in Dharamsala, the hill town headquarters of the Tibetan Government in Exile. The NGO is named according to the months in which major demonstrations took place in Lhasa, capital of Tibet. “Gu” (Nine) is for September 27, 1987, “Chu”(Ten) is for October 1, 1987, and “Sum”(March) is for March 5, 1988.
