Thursday 17 May 2012

200 women in Amdo march demanding release of fellow Tibetans

Phayul[Friday, May 11, 2012 02:33]
Exiled Tibetan women took to the streets of Dharamshala, India on March 12, commemorating the 53rd Tibetan Women’s Uprising day. (Phayul photo/Norbu Wangyal)
Exiled Tibetan women took to the streets of Dharamshala, India on March 12, commemorating the 53rd Tibetan Women’s Uprising day. (Phayul photo/Norbu Wangyal)
DHARAMSHALA, May 10: In a strong show of defiance against Chinese authorities, around 200 Tibetan women in the Ngaba region of eastern Tibet marched towards the Chinese district office last week demanding the release of fellow Tibetans arrested in recent times.

“On May 1, about 200 Tibetan women, from different villages of Ngaba County including Adhue village and Gyade Tsosum village, marched to the Ngaba County government office to appeal for the release of Tibetans arrested on April 14 at Adhue village,” the Dharamshala based rights group, Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy said in a release Thursday.

The women marchers were stopped by armed Chinese security personnel at Tsamrig village after marching for nearly 7 kilometers,” the release said.

TCHRD, while citing sources, noted that “a big clash” was averted after heads of the local monastery intervened to ease the standoff.

“The standoff almost led to a big clash between the security officers and the Tibetans as security officers called in additional reinforcements from the County PAP,” TCHRD said. “It was only after the intervention by the heads and respected lamas of Adhue Monastery that the tense standoff was resolved.”

Although the marchers dispersed at the request of the lamas, they however continued to press for the release of detained Tibetans by announcing a farming boycott movement.

Tibetan residents of Adhue Thawa village refused to farm their fields as a sign of solidarity with the Tibetans who self-immolated, to express their pain and disapproval of the crackdown on Tibetan protesters in Adhue village, and their continued detention in official custody.

On April 14, many Tibetans were beaten and arrested for protesting official corruption by security officers in Adhue village. A large number of Tibetans had to be hospitalised although most of them have now been discharged, TCHRD said.

Following the protest march and farming boycott movement, seven Tibetans were released on May 5 after they were made to attend ‘patriotic re-education’ sessions for three days in the township.

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