 Tibetans and supporters taking part in a solidarity vigil for Tibetans inside Tibet in the Australian city of Melbourne on August 8, 2012. (Phayul photo/Tibetan Community of Melbourne) DHARAMSHALA, August 9: Tibetans and supporters responded to the Kashag’s appeal for an international solidarity vigil on August 8, coinciding with the one-year anniversary of Kalon Tripa Dr Lobsang Sangay’s inauguration. The Tibetan cabinet in an earlier statement said that the international vigil will “remember those Tibetans who have given up their lives for Tibet and show solidarity with every Tibetan in Tibet who continues to suffer oppression under Chinese rule.” In the Australian city of Melbourne, the local Tibetan community and Australian friends and supporters of Tibet held a candle-light vigil yesterday at the Federation Square. In honour of the Tibetan men and women who have sacrificed their lives for Tibet, the participants observed two minutes of silence and offered prayers. In his speech, highlighting the deteriorating human rights situation inside Tibet, president of the Melbourne Tibetan Community, Sandup Tsering blamed China’s policies of “colonisation and sinicisation” of Tibet for the ongoing wave of self-immolation inside Tibet. Tsering also called upon Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr to honour his promise that he made in March this year to send an Australian delegation to gain firsthand knowledge of the situation inside Tibet. In Taiwan, the Office of Tibet in Taipei, organised a prayer service in solidarity with the Tibetans inside Tibet. Tibetans and supporters participated in the prayer service presided over by Serthi Rinpoche.  Ngodup Dorjee, Representative of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, leading the solidarity rally in Antwerp, Belgium on August 8, 2012. (Photo/TibetNet) The Central Tibetan Administration, in a report, said that His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s Taiwan Representative Dawa Tsering read out Kalon Tripa Dr Lobsang Sangay’s message on the occasion. In Belgium, hundreds of Tibetans and Belgian supporters took out a peace march followed by a mass prayer in the country’s second largest city of Antwerp. Addressing the rally, Ngodup Dorjee, Representative of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, urged the participants to “relentlessly engage the international community as the representative voice of the Tibetans suffering under Chinese repression.” According to reports, a group of Tibetan children sang a patriotic song in memory of fellow Tibetans who laid down their lives for Tibet’s freedom. Similar rallies have also been reported from Amsterdam, Holland and Barcelona, Spain. |
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