DHARAMSHALA, December 25: A group of Tibetan school students in north India will be carrying out a peace march to the exile headquarters of Dharamshala in solidarity with the critical situation inside Tibet.
Students of the Tibetan Children’s Village School in Suja in the north Indian state of Himachal Pradesh will embark on the three-day march beginning tomorrow. Class X students of the school, whose annual winter holidays were recently announced, will be taking part in the march from December 26-28.
The student organisers said the main aim of the march is to “express their solidarity with all Tibetan martyrs, appeal exile Tibetans to rise up for the cause of Tibet, and to resonate the students’ spirit inside and outside Tibet.”
Following the march, the students will also hold a prayer service at the Tsug-la Khang, the main temple and a candle light vigil later in the evening.
The students appealed for maximum participation in the march and requested everyone to join in their solidarity actions.
Students inside Tibet have been on the forefront of major demonstrations in the recent past following the escalation in self-immolation protests.
On November 26, over a thousand Tibetan students from the Chabcha Sorig Lobling School staged a major protest rally against the Chinese government, raising slogans calling for freedom, equality of nationalities, freedom of language, and re-establishment of governance.
Chinese armed forces used violent force to break up the demonstration, injuring many young protesters and hospitalising around 20 students. The school was subsequently placed under complete lock down and Chinese security forces barred students from meeting their parents and relatives.
According to reports, eight Tibetan students of the Sorig Lobling medical school were subsequently sentenced to five years in prison for the protests.
Also in November, thousands of Tibetan school students in Rebkong carried out a major street protest in front of Chinese government offices, raising slogans for His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s return and rights of the Tibetan people.
Last month, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay urged Chinese authorities to “promptly address the longstanding grievances that have led to an alarming escalation in desperate forms of protest, including self-immolations, in Tibetan areas.”
Pillay said she was disturbed by “continuing allegations of violence against Tibetans seeking to exercise their fundamental human rights,” and called on the Chinese authorities to release detainees, allow independent human rights monitors to visit Tibet, and to lift restrictions on media access to Tibet.
