DHARAMSHALA, March 9: Tens of thousands of Tibetans and supporters will
be pouring out on the streets the world over on March 10 to observe the
54th Tibetan National Uprising Day. Since March last year, more
than 80 Tibetans have set themselves on fire protesting China’s
continued occupation and demanding freedom and the return of the Dalai
Lama from exile. In Brussels, nearly 5000 Tibetans and supporters
from all over Europe are expected to take part in a mass solidarity
rally to highlight the tragic situation and the self-immolation crisis
in Tibet, and seek support for concrete European Union action. More than 27 Tibetan Community Associations in Europe have for the first come together to organise the March 10 rally. Speakers
at the event, apart from European leaders, include Kyabje Kirti
Rinpoche, the exiled abbot of the Kirti Monasteries, Speaker Penpa
Tsering, and Kalon Dicki Chhoyang. The organisers in a release
said that through the mass solidarity rally, Tibetans will be appealing
the EU and its Member States to urge China to review its failed
hard-line policies in Tibet and allow unfettered access to Tibet for the
media and international fact-finding delegations. The EU will
also be called upon to instruct its Special Representative for Human
Rights to seek access to Tibet and to appoint an EU Special Coordinator
for Tibetan Affairs with the primary task of encouraging and
facilitating a dialogue between the envoys of His Holiness the Dalai
Lama and the Chinese government. In Toronto, Canada, around 3000 Tibetans, wearing traditional Tibetan clothes will carry out a mass rally tomorrow morning. Organisers
said the marches will also carry 99 dummy coffins, draped in Tibetan
national flags, in honour of Tibetan self-immolators who have passed
away. Canadian members of parliament, Wayne Marston, who is also
the Vice Chair Subcommittee of International Human Rights and Peggy
Nash, among others, will be addressing the rally. In London,
Tibetans and supporters will be marching from Downing Street to the
Chinese Embassy where Tim Loughton MP will address a rally. The
Tibet Freedom March in London will be calling on the Chinese government
to end its six-decade brutal regime in Tibet and to respect the rights
and freedoms of the Tibetan people. Tibetans and supporters will also be
urging David Cameron to speak up for the people of Tibet and make a
public statement of concern over the current human rights situation in
Tibet. In the exile headquarters of Dharamshala the official
March 10 function will be attended by Sikyong Dr Lobsang Sangay, the
elected head of the Tibetan people and Khenpo Sonam Tenphel, Deputy
Speaker of the Tibetan Parliament. Six ministers of the exile
Tibetan administration will be attending official Tibetan National
Uprising Day functions in four different continents tomorrow.
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