Marching against occupation
August 11, 2005
By LEE HIGGINS (NORWALK) — Twenty-six men, women and children marched down Westport Avenue Wednesday afternoon, carrying signs protesting China’s 46-year occupation of Tibet, a country tucked between India and China.
The demonstration was part of a 15-day, 212-mile walk from Boston to New York City to raise awareness about the occupation, which demonstrators argued was fast destroying Tibetan culture. Tashi Dorjee, 13, of Old Saybrook, who is Tibetan and joined the demonstrators as they passed through his hometown, explained that it was his responsibility to march. “When I was little, my grandpa tells me stories about Tibet,” he said. “I realize Tibet is Tibet. Not part of China … I work for freedom, independence. It is so important for me. That’s my responsibility.” Tsewang Rizin, 33, of Vancouver, Wash., who also marched Wednesday, noted that the Communist Chinese regime is killing his people and the least he can do is show them support. “I’m marching because as a Tibetan, this is the least I can do, because my brothers and sisters in Tibet are being tortured, executed, raped, every single day by the communist Chinese regime in Tibet,” said Rizin.
“I think we’re running out of time. …There are more Chinese than Tibetans inside Tibet. And I think it’s critical that we as Tibetans rise up and do whatever we can to regain our country. …Our nation is on the brink of extinction.” The demonstrators, many of whom were affiliated with the Indianapolis, Indiana-based International Tibet Independence Movement, which organized the event, argued that 1.2 million Tibetans have been killed under Chinese occupation. People are no longer allowed to learn Tibetan, they must speak Chinese, or they cannot get a job, Rizin noted. “I don’t hate the Chinese,”
he said. “I hate the Communist Chinese regime. They should get out of Tibet.
They should get the hell out of Tibet. They don’t have any business being in Tibet.” Under Chinese rule, demonstrators claim that Tibetans have become minorities in their own country and have been denied free speech, press or religion.
Monks and nuns have been forced to renounce The Dalai Lama, the spiritual and political leader of the Tibetan people, they claim. Buddhists, Christians and Muslims have been persecuted, killed and imprisoned, they argue. More than 6,000 Tibetan monasteries have been destroyed, they claim. Tracy Ellwanger, 21, of Fairfield, who marched Wednesday, explained that throughout the occupation, Tibet has maintained a non-violent stance.
“The non-violent stance, I resonate with it,” she said. Ellwanger, who graduated in May from New York University, where she first took an interest in the occupation, has been with the march since it started July 30 at the Boston Statehouse. She plans to stick with it until the end, when they meet up with Tibetan supporters at the Chinese Embassy in New York City on Saturday at 3 p.m. While they’ve been walking 15 miles a day, Ellwanger can’t complain, she said. “We really can’t complain,” she said. “All the Tibetans who escaped from Tibet, they walked over the Himalayan mountains.” For more information about the march, visit http://www.rangzen.org or call Larry at (317) 506-2249.
