Launch of the hunger strike Photo: TYC
Three council members of the Tibetan Youth Congress (TYC) began an indefinite hunger strike at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on September 10, two days after China’s celebration of the 50th anniversary of the “founding of the Tibet Autonomous Region” in Lhasa.
TYC, the largest non-governmental pro-independence group of the Tibetan exile community, hopes to draw the world’s attention to the situation inside Tibet and to show solidarity with their fellow Tibetans through this strike.
The participants – Vice President Tamdin Hrichoe, Information and International Relations Secretary Tsewang Dolma, and Finance Secretary Tenzin Wangchuk – have made five demands to the United Nations. These are: to raise the issue of Tibet in its General Assembly and Human Rights Council Session; to urge China to address the demands of the self immolators in Tibet; to urge China to provide evidence that the 11th Panchen Lama Gendun Choekyi Nyima is alive; to urge China to immediately release innocent Tibetans imprisoned as political prisoners and lastly, to send a special delegation to assess the current critical situation in Tibet.
“However, instead of addressing the demands of these courageous Tibetans, the Chinese government has tightened its control over Tibet and vehemently criticises the Tibetan spiritual teacher His Holiness the Dalai Lama,” stated TYC.
Further condemning the recent 50th anniversary celebrations, TYC stated that “this is 50 years of colonisation, and a celebration like this is uncalled for when 143 Tibetans have self-immolated inside Tibet protesting [against] China’s policies.”
Supporters of the strikers Photo: TYC
Referring to a White Paper released by the Chinese government last week that denounced the Dalai Lama’s demand for a “high degree of autonomy” as an obstruction to progress and claimed that Tibet is “now in its golden age”, TYC President Tenzing Jigme said “this is certainly not the Golden Age but is the Darkest Age in the history of Tibet and there is nothing to celebrate.” He elaborated that the Communist Party has enforced a series of campaigns and policies to systematically stifle Tibetan culture, language, identity and spiritual traditions, and to destroy Tibet’s fragile environment which will have an impact on the world at large and Asia in particular.
He added, “We are wary of interventions that might forcefully stop the hunger strike like it has been in the past but we have prepared and have discussed those contingencies. We are determined to make this campaign a fruitful one.”
Police forcibly remove TYC Organisational Secretary Penpa Tsering from the protest site in September 2012 Photo: tibetanyouthcongress.org
TYC has previously organised three indefinite hunger strikes in various cities including New Delhi, Geneva and New York. The third, in New Delhi, was in September 2012 during Chinese defence minister General Liang Guaglie’s visit to India. The strikers were forcibly removed from their site at the Jantar Mantar on the 20th day of their fast and taken to a local hospital to recover. They had each lost more than 10 kg in their protest, which was staged to “express solidarity with the self-immolators inside Tibet and to appeal for immediate international intervention.”
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