Tibetan parliament-in-exile members appeal for campaign on Tibet issue

SUJAL PRADHAN

, EOI, Gangtok, 9 Oct 2018: A team of Tibetan Parliament- in- Exile, Central Tibetan Administration, met Sikkim Governor Ganga Prasad at Raj Bhavan on Monday and put forward an appeal that whenever meetings were held between the governments of India and China, the issue of Tibet should be included in the discussions. Ways should be explored to lend support for reviving talks between envoys of the Dalai Lama and the government of China to resolve the critical situation in Tibet on the basis of the mutually beneficial middle way approach.

Since the natural environment of Tibet was directly concerned with the life of billions of people in neighbouring countries, including India, the Chinese government should be persuaded to protect the environment in Tibet.
Because of the brutality of the policies followed by the Chinese government in Tibet, a total of 152 Tibetans had carried out self-immolations in protests, starting with the monk Tapey who torched himself on February 7, 2009, and Tsekho was the last to do so on March 7, 2018.
Tibetans demanded that “His Holiness the Dalai Lama should be invited to Tibet; that freedom should prevail in Tibet,” the parliamentarians said and requested that the Chinese government was prevailed upon to respect these sentiments of the Tibetan people and take them up for proper consideration. They requested the Indian Parliament, different state legislatures and political parties to adopt resolutions on Tibet and take part in campaigns relating to Tibet.
“The government of China is exercising tight control on religion in Tibet; destroying the Tibetan people’s linguistic heritage and culture; persecuting and torturing the Tibetan people held for political reasons; encouraging a massive influx of Chinese immigration into Tibet and has carried out large-scale deployment of armed forces in Tibet’s border areas. We, therefore, urge that these issues be taken up with the government of China with a view to hold serious discussions on them and to convince Beijing to put an end to these abusive practices,” they said in their appeal.