March of return to Tibet concludes, new protests announced, but also talks
Dharamsala (AsiaNews) - The March of return to Tibet has concluded, with an official ceremony in the refugee camp in Paonta Sahib and the announcement of new initiatives during the Olympics. Meanwhile, Beijing says that talks with representatives of the Dalai Lama will resume in July.
After 110 days, marked by the repeated arrests of participants on the part of Indian authorities, Ngawang Woebar, the head of GuChuSum, the Ex-Political Prisoner's Movement of Tibet, announced the end of the march, explaining however that "the Tibetan people's uprising movement is not over. We will reunite in even larger numbers to protest against China hosting the 2008 summer Olympics". In recent days, Indian authorities have released the 41 marchers arrested, some of them on the condition of not participating in activities likely to put New Delhi "in difficulty".
Chime Youngdung, head of the National Democratic Party of Tibet, arrested on June 19 and freed after a few days, describes the march as "a success, because we came within 10 kilometres of our homeland. Now we have to mobilise Tibetans around the world to protest during the Olympics".
Bumo Tsering, president of the Tibetan Women's Association, explains to AsiaNews from Dharamsala that "it is very unfortunate that India - a country with great values, which has so kindly given us refuge for 50 years - has now succumbed to pressure from the Chinese and did not allow us to cross the Indo-Tibetan border and permit us to go home to Tibet". "International law clearly permits refugees to return to their homeland", she says, promising to do so in August. "When we meet at that time, we'll meet in thousands, not just the 250 marchers who dispersed from Paonta Sahib". "I want the international community to know and understand this very clearly: as long as there is even one simple Tibetan alive, the struggle will continue, and one day the world will have to acknowledge there is a Tibetan issue, and world leaders will be compelled to take a stand to resolve the Tibetan issue".
Meanwhile, Beijing has announced the resumption of talks with the Dalai Lama at the beginning of July, saying that "our door is always open for dialogue" and expressing hope for a "positive response to the requirements of the central authorities", without indicating what these are. China has always defined the Dalai Lama, Tibet's spiritual leader, as a dangerous terrorist, but international pressure, after the military repression in Tibet in March, has driven Beijing to accept this dialogue. After meetings on May 4, the ones scheduled for June were postponed because of the earthquake emergency. The Dalai Lama has for some time repeated that he is not asking for Tibet's independence, but only for greater autonomy, and is calling for no boycott of the Olympics in Beijing.
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05/06/2008
