Exiles arrested in protest march begin hunger strike

A group of more than 100 Tibetan exiles went on hunger strike today after being arrested in northern India during a march protesting China’s hosting of the Olympic Games, organisers said.

The protesters had vowed to march from India to Tibet to coincide with the start of the Games.

Indian officials fear the protest will embarrass Beijing and banned the exiles from leaving the Kangra district that surrounds the city of Dharmsala, the headquarters of the Tibetan government-in-exile.

Shortly after the marchers set off early this morning, police stopped them in the town of Dehra, about 20km (12 miles) from the district boundary, and loaded them into buses.

The protesters shouted “free Tibet!” and other slogans as they were being detained, but there was no violence, witnesses said.

Senior police official Atul Fulzele said the protesters had been charged with threatening the region’s “peace and tranquility”. Police said they would be taken to court within 24 hours. In the past, protesters charged with the offence have been released after formally pledging not to carry on demonstrating.

The protesters began a hunger strike within hours of being arrested, Tenzin Palkyi, a march co-ordinator, said. They are being held in a local hotel because the jail cannot accommodate them all.

Nine foreigners who were marching with the Tibetans but were not arrested also began a hunger strike outside the hotel, said one of the foreigners, an American called Clay Di’Chro. The foreigners hail from the US, Scotland, Germany, Poland and Australia.

The march began on Monday, the day Tibetans commemorated their 1959 uprising against China. Demonstrations took place around the world, including a protest by 300 Buddhist monks in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, one of the boldest public challenges to China’s rule in recent years.

Despite the arrests, organisers vowed to continue the march.

“We will have to find a way,” said Mr Palkyi. “Our legal team will deal with the police.”

Dolma Gyari, an official with Tibet’s government-in-exile, came to Jwalaji, the town where the protesters were being held, to express her concerns.

“We have the highest respect ... (for) those who are participating in this march to Tibet,” Mr Gyari told reporters. She demanded Indian authorities explain “what made them believe that these peaceful marchers were a threat to law and order.”

Beijing confirmed on Tuesday that about 300 Buddhist monks from the Drepung monastery outside Lhasa marched to the city to commemorate the failed uprising that forced the Dalai Lama to flee to India.

In a second, smaller demonstration, nine monks shouted slogans near a main temple.

The protests are believed to be the largest in the city since Beijing crushed a wave of pro-independence demonstrations in 1989.

Since then, China has pumped investment into the region, vilified the Dalai Lama and tried to weed out his supporters among the influential Buddhist clergy - moves that have alienated some Tibetans.

The US government-funded Radio Free Asia and an overseas Tibetan website, phayul.com, reported as many as 71 people, mostly monks, were detained after the protests.

However, Tibet’s chief administrator, Champa Phunstok, said authorities defused the incidents without arrests.

“It’s really nothing,” he said on the sidelines of the National People’s Congress, China’s annual legislative session. “Everything is really great.”

Asked about the march, Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said: “Some ignorant monks in Lhasa abetted by a small handful of people did some illegal things that can challenge the social stability.”

He said the monks were dealt with “according to the law”, but gave no details.

Drepung was sealed off on Tuesday and increased numbers of armed police guarded temples in and around Lhasa, according to Radio Free Asia and phayul.com.

Beijing maintains that Tibet is historically part of China, but many Tibetans argue the Himalayan region was virtually independent for centuries and accuse China of trying to crush Tibetan culture by swamping it with Han people, the majority Chinese ethnic group.