Friends of Tibet march in Taipei

SHARED DESTINY?: While showing their usual support for the Tibetan cause, participants this year also shared their fears and questions about the future of Taiwan

Monday, March 16, 2009

Taipei Times
By Loa Iok-sin,STAFF REPORTER
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Demonstrators in downtown Taipei yesterday wave Tibetan flags and a banner portrait of the Dalai Lama at a march to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the 1959 Tibetan Uprising.PHOTO: FANG PIN-CHAO, TAIPEI TIMES

Thousands of people marched in the streets of Taipei yesterday to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the 1959 Tibetan Uprising and show their support for Tibetans’ struggle for freedom.

“We Tibetans have been in exile for 50 years. The Chinese government tries hard to make us forget who we are — but we will not,” Regional Tibetan Youth Congress Taiwan chairman Tashi Tsering told the crowd before the march began.

“I was born in exile, but I never forget who I am, what my country is, and we all firmly believe that Tibet will become independent again,” Tashi said, as the crowd answered with a resounding “Free Tibet!”

Nine years after China invaded Tibet in 1950, Tibetans launched an uprising during which the Tibetan political and religious leader, the Dalai Lama, went into exile in India, with tens of thousands of Tibetans following.

Tibetans continued to fight Chinese rule, resulting in more than 1.2 million deaths, Tibet support groups and the Tibetan government in exile have said.

The march started at the Zhongxiao Fuxing MRT station in Taipei and went through busy shopping districts.

Many shoppers joined in.

“Tibetans want to go home,” “ China, get out of Tibet!” the demonstrators shouted as they marched, holding Tibetan flags, a large portrait of the Dalai Lama and various placards.

At 3:10pm, the procession stopped and observed a minute of silence for Tibetans killed in their struggle for freedom.

Several key figures from the Democratic Progressive Party took part in the rally.

Chinese democracy activist Cai Lujun ( 蔡陸軍) was also among the crowd.

“Opposing dictatorship and tyranny is a universal value that goes beyond nationalities or races,” Cai said. “Ignoring what’s going on in Tibet today is ignoring what will happen to Taiwan tomorrow.”

Aside from showing their usual support for Tibetans, many demonstrators this year voiced their worries about Taiwan’s future.

“We can see that freedom of speech and freedom of press are deteriorating in Taiwan, especially after Ma Ying-jeou [ 馬英九] took over as president [last year],” said Eric Chang ( 張浩明), a young demonstrator. “If we don’t stand up now, our fate could be the same as that of Tibetans.”

Weng Chih-ming, a 31-year-old technology company engineer, said he supported Tibet out of a sense of justice as a human being, adding that he didn’t want Taiwan to fall “under China’s dictatorship.”

An elementary school teacher surnamed Fu ( 傅) expressed similar concerns.

“I don’t want Taiwan to become like Tibet … I don’t want our next generation to live a hard life under Chinese rule,” Fu said.

Erinn Law, a Canadian who has been living in Taiwan for five years, echoed Chang’s view.

“Not enough people know about what’s going on [in Tibet], so we need to [speak up],” she said, clearly excited by the large crowd that had gathered for this year’s event.

“I don’t want what happened to Tibet to happen to Taiwan, because I love Taiwan,” she said.