By Tenzin Wangmo
San Francisco Tibetans and supporters gathered in Downtown Berkeley yesterday to raise awareness of the March 14 crackdown that took place in Lhasa last year. The event was led by the San Francisco Tibetan Youth Congress.
Approximately 100 Tibetans and Tibet supporters started the event with paying respects to the brave monks and lay men who took the streets of Lhasa in a peaceful protest against Chinese occupation of Tibet in 1959.
Last year on March 14th, thousands of Tibetan monks and lay people took the streets of Lhasa to carry a peaceful protest against the Chinese oppression. The protest quickly spread to other part of Tibet bringing about the biggest ever anti china protests in years. The exile Tibetan government says around 249 Tibetans lost their lives under the Chinese crackdown.
“We urge the international community to condemn the Chinese government for barring international media from Tibet, and we demand that China release all Tibetans who have been arrested or detained since last year, and urge the Chinese government to refrain from excessive use of force against the Tibetans in Tibet” said Tsering Dorjee, President of the S.F Tibetan Youth Congress.
Tibet advocacy groups are urging the American government to immediately respond to China’s military clampdown in Tibet and to pressure the Chinese government to engage in meaningful negotiation with the Dalai Lama to find a lasting resolution for Tibet.
“We just read reports from Phayul that Three Tibetan youths were arrested today in Kardze after they protested the Chinese government, a year since last year’s March 14 uprising in Tibet that spread across the restive Himalayan region”, said Sonam Lama of SFRTYC.
The crowd marched along Downtown Berkeley, covering the UC Berkeley campus and Telegraph areas distributing fliers to raise public awareness of the situations in Tibet.
An announcement was made for a scheduled rally on March 28 at the Chinese consulate in San Francisco to protest the celebration of the so called “Serf’s emancipation day”.
“The notion of liberation and the Serf’s Emancipation Day is a slap in the face for Tibetans everywhere from the Chinese Government… We must combat this new propaganda that falsifies history. Chinese government say they liberated us, when in truth they stole our country from us” said Namgyal Tesur, General Secretary of Tibetan Youth Congress.
