President Trump meets late Tulku Tenzin Delek’s niece, other religious persecution victims at White House

Nyima Lhamo, niece of late Tulku Tenzin Delek Rinpoche appeals to the US President Donald Trump to support Tibet.

DHARAMSALA, 18 July: Niece of late Tulku Tenzin Delek Rinpoche has met with the US President Donald Trump and urged the US to support the Tibetan cause.

“Tibet and Tibetans inside Tibet need America’s support. Please support His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s return to Tibet,” Nyima Lhamo, the niece of late Tulku Tenzin has said as she appeals for the US’ continued support for Tibet to President Trump.

Lhamo made the appeal to President Trump as she met him along with other persecuted religious minorities in the Oval Office on Wednesday.

She was accompanied by 26 other religious persecution victims from countries like Uighur, China, Turkey, North Korea, Iran, Myanmar, New Zealand, Yemen, Cuba, Eritrea, Nigeria, Vietnam, Sudan, Iraq, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Germany.

President Trump was accompanied by White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney and Sam Brownback, the administration’s ambassador at large for international religious freedom at the meeting that took place on the sidelines of the annual Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom, a conference hosted by the US State Department to bring together leaders from around the world to discuss the challenges facing religious freedom, identify means to address religious persecution and discrimination worldwide, and promote greater respect and preservation of religious liberty for all, reports Tibet.net, the official webpage of CTA.

The Tibet delegation at the Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom includes Representative Ngodup Tsering, Office of Tibet, Washington DC and staff of OoT-DC, Kunchok Dolma Yaklha, Special Appointee for Human Rights, Tibet Bureau Geneva, Members of International Campaign for Tibet, Azen Rinpoche from Nepal, and Nyima Lhamo, niece of late Tulku Tenzin Delek.

President Trump has made religious freedom a centrepiece of his foreign policy, reports the Reuters.

Though the Chinese government has rejected any suggestion that it abuses religious rights and human rights, four participants at the meeting-Jewher Ilham, a Uighur Muslim; Yuhua Zhang, a Falun Gong practitioner; Nyima Lhamo, a Tibetan Buddhist; and Manping Ouyang, a Christian- were all persecuted by the Chinese government for their faith, the report said.

The report further said that the Trump administration has been weighing sanctions against Chinese officials over the treatment of the Uighurs, including the Communist Party chief of Xinjiang, Chen Quanguo, but has so far held back amid Chinese threats of retaliation.

The US Ambassador to China, Terry Branstad who visited Tibet earlier this year in May has also “expressed concerns regarding the Chinese government’s interference in Tibetan Buddhists’ freedom to organize and practice their religion,” beside urging China to engage in substantive dialogue with His Holiness the Dalai Lama or his representatives, without preconditions.

However, Beijing swiftly condemned the US envoy’s remark as an unconstructive and interfering with China’s internal affairs.

Niece of Tulku Tenzin Delek Rinpoche, who was previously detained by the Chinese authorities in Tibet for allegedly leaking state secrets along with her mother, fled Tibet and safely arrived in India on 24 July 2016.

“Like my uncle, who was subjected to brutal and unfathomable torture in Chinese prison and passed away, many Tibetan political prisoners are still facing the same fate under the repressive Chinese rule. With the hope of sharing the suffering of Tibetans in Tibet, I decided to escape from Chinese occupied Tibet,” she said while narrating her ordeals and that of her uncle Tenzin Delek Rinpoche’s at her first press conference held here in the exile headquarter of Tibetan people.

“I risked everything to come out of Tibet so that I can speak out to the world. I am fully aware that as I speak about Tenzin Delek Rinpoche, I am jeopardizing the lives of my family and relatives at home but I choose to spread the truth and speak for those who continue to suffer under the repressive Chinese regime inside Tibet,” she concluded.

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