Tibetans march to UN office in Delhi appealing for urgent meeting on Tibet

By Lobsang Tenchoe

DHARAMSALA, May 29: Tibetans in Delhi marched from Khan Market to the United Nations office in the Indian capital earlier today and protested outside the intergovernmental organization to ‘Save Tibet’ as the self-immolation toll inside Tibet has now reached a staggering 150 under China’s repressive rule.

Carrying Tibetan national flags, placards and banners along with 150 coffins resembling the number of known Tibetans to have self-immolated inside Tibet protesting against China’s repressive rule, the Tibetan activists marched from Khan Market to the United Nations office in New Delhi.

Tibetan Youth Congress (TYC), the organizer of the protest, said the protest is an attempt to spread awareness and amplify the aspirations of the 150 Tibetans who have self-immolated inside Tibet and 8 in exile along with all the Tibetans who have stood up against the communist China’s tyrannical rule in Tibet.

The Tibetan activists appealed to the United Nations to convene an urgent meeting on Tibet as the situation inside Tibet drastically deteriorates.

“As long as the Tibetan people are oppressed by China under its repressive rule, so long will Tibetans resolve to resist the tyranny with the only solution being the communist regime listening to the aspirations of the Tibetan people,” TYC’s President Tenzing Jigme said.

With the self-immolation of Jamyang Losel, a Tibetan monk from Gyerthang monastery on May 19 near a public hospital in Chentsa county, 150 Tibetans are known to have self-immolated inside Tibet since 2009.

All the Tibetan self-immolators have called for freedom to be restored in Tibet and His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s return to Tibet. Though the Central Tibetan Administration headquartered in Dharamsala has repeatedly urged Tibetans not to resort to drastic measures such as self-immolation, the saga of fiery protests by the Tibetans continues.