PRESS RELEASE
Seventeen Point Agreement: a truce by force
The Imperialist powers have the ingenuity to concoct excuses with super fine sophistication to invade and occupy other countries and build empires in these “virgin lands”.
First they sent the overly enthusiastic smiling communist cadres to lure the Tibetan natives with promiese of development; building roads and bridges and bringing in modern goodies like motor cars and bicycles. But when the Tibetans were found adamant with their traditional culture and customs, especially about religious believes, and resisted change, they started using PLA soldiers.
A bitter battle was fought between the invading Chinese Red Army and the ill-armed Tibetan nomads and farmers in eastern Tibet in 1950. Tibetan villages and monasteries were destroyed and hundreds of Tibetans got killed.
Then Mao Zedong came out with this brilliant idea of “Peaceful liberation of Tibet”, by forcing the Tibetans to sign what is today called “Seventeen Point Agreement” threatening the Tibetan Government with full-fledged military invasion if the Tibetans did not agree to his “peaceful liberation” of Tibet from foreign imperialists and old cultural orthodoxy.
This is how Tibet lost her independence. The “Seventeen Point Agreement” was signed between the four-member Tibetan delegation and the People’s Republic of China on May 23rd 1951. This day is remembered as a black day for the Tibetans, while China continues to flaunt it as legitimate proof of Tibetan submission to the idea of getting reunited to the “motherland”.
In 1959, His Holiness the Dalai Lama after his escape from Tibet, from his exile office established in India repudiated the “Seventeen Point Agreement”, as the Chinese Government broke all the agreements by leading a military invasion of Tibet and causing irreparable destruction in Tibet from 1951-1959.
Today, on the 55th anniversary of the imposition of “Peaceful Liberation” on Tibet by China, two Tibetan youth bodies – Regional Tibetan Youth Congress, Dharamsala and Students for a Free Tibet, India – join the international condemnation of this act of invasion of Tibet and the continued occupation of Tibet by China.
To mark the occasion, Tibetans and Tibet supporters all over the world are protesting and remembering the day as a black day. Here in Dharamsala, RTYC and SFT India jointly organize a panel discussion “Talking 17 Point Agreement”. The first speaker of the panel, Mr. Sonam Topgyal (former Kalon Tripa) will discuss the history of the treaty, while the second speaker Mr. Karma Choephel (MP, former Chair of Tibetan parliament, President of National Democratic Party of Tibet) will relate the “Seventeen Point Agreement” to today’s Tibetan political situation.
This is being organized at Yongling School, in Mcleod Ganj, Dharamsala on 23 rd May 2006. The panel discussion is open for public and will commence at 5.30pm.
Sonam Wangdue President
Regional Tibetan Youth Congress, Dharamsala Tenzin Choeying India Co-ordinator Students for a free Tibet, India
Contact details:
1. RTYC, Dhasa Phone: 9816341234/ 9418112749 Email: rtycdhasa@yahoo.com Web: www.tibetanyouthcongress.org
2. SFT, India Phone: 220589 Mobile: 9816374389Email: support@sftindia.org Web: www.sftindia.org
