Tibetans scuffle with police outside Chinese embassy in Indian capital
The clashes came as Tibetans in exile marked the 66th anniversary of their uprising with China.
Dozens of Tibetan protesters have clashed with police outside the Chinese embassy in New Delhi as Tibetans living in exile marked the 66th anniversary of their uprising against China.
As in past years, police blocked the protesters from entering the embassy and briefly detained some of them after wrestling them to the ground.
Hundreds also marched in the north Indian town of Dharamsala, the seat of the exiled Tibetan government and home of the Dalai Lama, their 89-year-old spiritual leader.
Separately, about a hundred Tibetan women gathered at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, an area designated for protests close to Parliament.
The protesters shouted anti-China slogans, carried Tibetan flags and played the national anthems of Tibet and India.
Many had their faces painted in colours of the Tibetan national flag. The demonstrators observed a minute of silence to remember Tibetans who lost their lives in the struggle against China.
Monks, activists, nuns and schoolchildren marched across the town with banners reading: “Free Tibet”, and: “Remember, Resist, Return”.
Penpa Tsering – the president of the Central Tibetan Administration, as the exiled Tibetan government calls itself – accused China’s leadership of carrying out a “deliberate and dangerous strategy to eliminate the very identity of the Tibetan people”.
“As we commemorate the Tibetan National Uprising Day, we honour our brave martyrs, and express solidarity with our brothers and sisters inside Tibet who continue to languish under the oppressive Chinese government.”
The Tibetan government-in-exile in India accuses China of denying the most fundamental human rights to people in Tibet and trying to expunge the Tibetan identity.
China claims Tibet has been part of its territory for centuries, but the Tibetans say the Himalayan region was virtually independent until China occupied it in 1950.
The Dalai Lama denies China’s claim that he is a separatist and says he only advocates substantial autonomy and protection of Tibet’s native Buddhist culture.
