By Phurbu Thinley
Phayul Correspondent
41 surviving Tibetan refugees safely reached Dharasala, the exile home of His Holiness the Dalai Lama in India
Dharamsala:As the 41 surviving Tibetan refugees, who have earlier lived through the fateful incident on the Nangpa La pass, reached Dharamsala safely early this morning, a group of six prominent Tibetan non-governmental organisations (NGOs) based here have jointly organised a huge protest rally from McLeod town to Kacheri (lower Dharamsala) to voice against the last month’s gun shooting on the innocent Tibetans by the Chinese border guards.
A candle light procession will be later held here in McLeod again at 5:30 in the evening.
In a gruesome incident, reported to have taken place earlier on 30 September, Chinese border forces are alleged to have opened fire on a group of approximately 75 Tibetans en route to Dharamsala to see their exiled leader.
During the incident, Kelsang Namtso, 17 year-old nun was reported shot dead and the other victim was 23-year-old Kunsang Namgyal, who was reportedly injured by bullet-shot and later captured by the Chinese border police.
Ven. Thupten Tsering, 23 years old from Kongpo region of Tibet, Lobsang Choden, 26 from Kardze county and seven-year old Deckyi Palzom from Chamdo region, were three among the 41 surviving members who were present here during the morning press conference to give their testimony.
Although the survivors have no proper clue about the fate of about 32 others. It is feared that more than eight of them might have died subsequent to the incident and the whereabouts of the remaining others are unknown yet.
On being asked whether that act of the border force could have been a defensive one; “We were not even in a position to attack them since none of us were armed with weapons” said Ven. Thupten. “Not even knives”, he added.
“They (Chinese Border Force) just started shooting from a distance all of a sudden”, said Ven Thupten, adding “There is no point in calling it an act of defense when border forces shoot at you without any warning signal.”
Video footage of the incident taken by a Romanian cameraman nearby Cho Oyu advance Everest base camp was also screened here during the conference. The footage clearly shows Chinese border-guards aiming and firing from a distance at a line of defenseless Tibetans and two Tibetans being shot down.
A figure in the footage is shown narrating that it is a Chinese guard firing a rifle on the Tibetan group, and the Tibetans are shown wading uphill through deep snow to escape the gun shots.
“Atrocities like this have been going on in Tibet since illegal occupation of Tibet in 1949, but remain either unheard or the Chinese authorities escape without any accountability for lack proper evidence”, said Ven. Ngawang Woeber, president of the Gu-Chu Sum Movement.
“But, we have right now is a factual proof of what we have always been alleging China for and we cannot afford to remain silent”, said Mr. Woeber.
Tibetan elsewhere around the world have been and will staging similar protests in their respective locations condemning this brutal attack on the defenseless Tibetans said Lobsang Yeshi, the Vice-President of Tibetan Youth Congress (TYC), the largest NGO of the exiled Tibetan community dedicated to completely restore Tibet’s lost independence.
