Tibetan Exiles Hold Vigil in Dharamsala, India

Tibetan exiles in Dharamsala in northern India held a candle light vigil on Friday (March 5), to condemn the Chinese regime’s sentencing of Tibetans in Lhasa, and are demanding for them to be released.

Newspapers in Tibet reported that Chinese authorities announced on March 3rd a “strike hard” campaign to “maintain social stability.” Tibetan supporters say that campaign is a series of arbitrary arrests, detentions and human rights violations.

The order comes just days before the March 10th anniversary of the 1959 Tibetan Uprising against Chinese communist rule.

The Tibetan Youth Congress took part in organizing the vigil.

[Tsewang Rigzin, President of Tibetan Youth Congress]:
„We are organizing a candle light vigil this evening to protest against those sentences and we are demanding China to release those Tibetans including all Tibetan political prisoners that are currently in Tibet in jail.“

The Chinese regime has controlled Tibet since 1950.

Since then the international community has widely criticized the Chinese Communist Party for repressing Tibetans’ religious and cultural freedoms.

March 2008 saw the biggest protests in Tibet for half a century, demonstrations spread into Tibetan communities in neighboring provinces of western China.

Foto: NTDTV