Uttarakhand police arrest the presidents of five NGOs leading the anti-Chinese demonstration. The 19 Tibetans arrested on 22 May are released instead four days later.

Mumbai (AsiaNews) – The presidents of the five NGOs leading the Tibetan exiles’ “Return March to Tibet” were arrested yesterday morning in Berinath, in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand. Tsewang Rigzin (Tibetan Youth Congress), B Tsering (Tibetan Women’s Association), Ngawang Woebar (GuChuSum or former Tibetan political prisoners’ movement), Chime Youngdrung (National Democratic Party of Tibet,) and Tenzin Choeying (Students for a Free Tibet) were still detained by Indian police as of yesterday afternoon.

The five leaders were supposed to meet the District Magistrate of Pithoragarh (Uttarakhand) to appeal for a permit to continue the march.

Uttarakhand state authorities had blocked the demonstrators on 22 May, arresting 19 marchers, who were eventually released four days later.

The five activists were not able to meet the authorities and are now charged under Section 151 of the Indian Penal Code with gathering in “an assembly of five or more persons likely to cause a disturbance of the public peace, after such assembly has been lawfully commanded to disperse.”

The three utility trucks belonging to the march have also been seized by the police.

After leaving on 10 March (anniversary of China’s 1959crackdown in Tibet) from Mcloedganj in Dharamsala, seat of the Tibetan government in exile, the participants to the “Return March” were set to reach Tibet on foot by the time the Beijing Olympics begin on 8 August.

For China, the initiative is a serious provocation. For the governments of India and Nepal it is a cause of disappointment vis-à-vis the Tibetans living in their respective territories; both warned Tibetan exiles that “anti-Chinese acts will not be tolerated.”(NC)

• india
• tibet
• uttarakhand
• berinath
• pithoragarh
• return
• march
• arrests
• section
• 151
• indian
• penal
• code
• beijing
• olympics