Marchers arrested near Tibet-Nepal border

The forty two Tibetan marchers who left Kathmandu six days ago were apprehended by the Nepalese police . On June 27th, another group of nine Tibetans also left Kathmandu to reach their ancestral home, Tibet. No one can stop our determination to be free again! The police can try and stop us but there will be another batch ready to non-violently protest against China’s occupation of Tibet and continue on the march home!

Information provided by Phayul

Marchers arrested near Tibet-Nepal border
http://phayul.com/news/article.aspx?id=21810&article=Marchers+arrested+near+Tibet-Nepal+border

Phayul[Tuesday, July 01, 2008 15:55]
By Tenzin Sangmo

New Delhi, July 1 - The forty two Tibetan marchers who left Kathmandu in the wee hours of the morning six days ago have been apprehended by Nepalese police officials some seven kilometers from Dram.

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Team Tibet fan at the European Championship Semifinals

During the European Championship Semifinals, a Team Tibet supporter surprised the football fans with a message: “Tibet is not China.” Moments after he was tackled by the security guards and taken away but our Team Tibet fan had already won our hearts.  Go Team Tibet!

For Rangzen,

Yingsel

Pro-Tibet protester runs onto field during Euro 2008 semifinal match

AP[Thursday, June 26, 2008 09:55]

(AP Photo/Murad Sezer) BASEL, Switzerland - A pro-Tibet protester ran onto the field late in Germany’s 3-2 win over Turkey on Wednesday in the European Championship semifinals. The man was wearing a T-shirt with the words “Tibet is not China,” and he ran on the field at St. Jakob Park moments after Turkey had scored an 86th-minute equalizer. He made it across most of the field before a security guard tackled him inside the opposite area. Several guards then surrounded him and carried him off the field. China’s communist leadership has faced a public relations disaster since protests of its rule of the Himalayan region turned violent March 14 in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa, sparking waves of unrest in surrounding provinces. That was followed by protests at the Olympic torch-lightning ceremony and on several of the relay routes around the world.

Keep politics out of Olympics, IOC tells China

IOC is telling China not to politicize the Olympics after Zhang Qingli, the Chinese Communist party secretary in Tibet said, “In order to bring more glory to the Olympic spirit, we should firmly smash the plots to ruin the Beijing Olympic Games by the Dalai clique and hostile foreign forces inside and outside of the nation.” Wait a minute, wasn’t the Chinese government telling everyone else not to politicize the Olympic games? Now that’s what I call “Irony.”

This information is from ABC/AFP

Keep politics out of Olympics, IOC tells China: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/06/25/2286084.htm?section=sport

Posted 3 hours 28 minutes ago

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has reminded China to draw a line between sports and politics, after a Communist party official lashed out at independence sentiment in Tibet during the Olympic flame relay there.

“The IOC regrets that political statements were made during the closing ceremony of the torch relay in Tibet,” it said, reacting to Saturday’s remarks (local time) by Zhang Qingli, the Chinese Communist party secretary in Tibet.

“We have written to BOCOG (Beijing Olympics Organising Committee) to remind them of the need to separate sport and politics and to ask for their support in making sure that such situations do not arise again,” it added, in an email from its headquarters in the Swiss city of Lausanne.

Zhang Qingli

In his remarks Saturday about striving for “the glory of the motherland,” Mr Zhang accused supporters of the Dalai Lama of trying to destroy the Olympics that open on August 8 in the Chinese capital.

“In order to bring more glory to the Olympic spirit, we should firmly smash the plots to ruin the Beijing Olympic Games by the Dalai clique and hostile foreign forces inside and outside of the nation,” he said.

Tighter security was in place as the Olympic flame made its final stop in front of the Potala Palace, the one-time home of the exiled Dalai Lama, in a ceremony that was shortened for reasons that were not disclosed.

The global running of the Olympic flame has been mired in controversy and headline-grabbing incidents since riots broke out three months ago in Lhasa and prompted a harsh crackdown on Tibetan opponents of Chinese rule.

Tibetans in exile claim 203 people have died as the result of what they call Chinese government “repression”.

Beijing counters than 21 have died at the hand of “rioters,” and that it had suppressed a Tibetan “rebellion”.

Meanwhile Chinese organisers have cancelled the international legs of the Paralympic torch relay.

The torch was scheduled to visit Olympic host cities of London, Vancouver and Sochi, as well as Hong Kong before the start of the Paralympics in September.

However it will now be restricted to mainland China.

March to Tibet restarts as six leaders released from jail

 It’s amazing how the marchers had all these setbacks yet they never gave up and kept fighting for our country. This gives me pride to be a Tibetan antelope. I keep the marchers in my heart and in my prayers. We all will meet again in a Free Country,Tibet. 

 Tibetan Peoples Uprising Movement                                                                                                                                    Leaders declare March will continue despite temporary setback

Marchers walking through Berinag market

Nainital , June 9 - At approximately 2:30 PM today, the March to Tibet restarted from Berinag after overcoming a temporary setback suffered last week when 265 of the marchers were arrested. The marchers broke into song and joy as they saw the snow-capped Himalayan ranges in the horizon. The leaders of the March, who had been jailed for 11 days in Hardwar jail and released on Sunday June 8th, led a group of 50 Tibetans on what is expected to be the most difficult leg of the march. The five presidents and the March Coordinator had been jailed by Indian police since May 27th, charged under Indian Penal Code Section 151 and CRPC sections 116 and 107.

“China’s long arm is oppressing us even in a free country like India,” said Chime Youngdung, President of the National Democratic Party of Tibet, soon after his release from jail. “The Olympics was supposed to bring more freedom to China and Tibet, but instead China is exporting its oppression to the free world in this Olympic year.”

“India has shown us the highest degree of hospitality for the past 50 years and we are grateful for it,” said Tsewang Rigzin, President of the Tibetan Youth Congress. “But now we want to return to Tibet and work in solidarity with our brothers and sisters back home to end China’s illegal occupation of Tibet.”

The march from Berinag to Tibet is expected to take more than a week during which the 50 marchers will traverse approximately 180 kilometers along the historical Himalayan trade route. They will reach Tibet around the time when China’s controversial Olympic torch is expected to pass through Lhasa. In April, a chain of global protests in London, Paris, San Francisco and New Delhi turned China’s Olympic torch relay into a colossal failure.

“It will be a long and arduous journey to Tibet,” said Shingza Rinpoche, looking at the Panch Chuli mountains in the distance. “But we will get there eventually. Even the Himalayas can’t stand between us and our brothers and sisters inside Tibet.”

The 265 marchers detained at Berinag were dropped off at Paonta Sahib, at the border of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, where they received a warm welcome from the local Tibetan communities.

The March to Tibet started on March 10th from Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh, and reached Banspatan after traversing through many states. Tibetans living in exile in India launched the March to Tibet as part of the Tibetan People’s Uprising Movement. On the same day that the march was launched, monks from monasteries in Lhasa, as well as in eastern Tibet, led nonviolent demonstrations, shouting slogans supporting the Dalai Lama and independence for Tibet. Chinese authorities brutally suppressed peaceful protests that continued for days, leading to rioting in the capital and a wave of large public demonstrations that have rippled across the country.

The March to Tibet and the Tibetan People’s Uprising Movement aim to revive the spirit of the Tibetan National Uprising of 1959, and engage in nonviolent direct action to bring about an end to China’s illegal occupation of Tibet.

BoingBoing.net blogs about the protest in Lhasa

My good friend Xeni at the hugely popular blog BoingBoing.net posted a story about the protest in Lhasa.  You can read the post here.