Press Release 11th March 2008

Indian Government Blocks Tibetans Return March

Police Issue Restraining Order Against All Core Marchers

Dharamsala-Indian police issued a restraining order yesterday from the central government in the names of all 100 Core Marchers participating in the Return March to Tibet. Police entered the grounds at Sarah College for Higher Tibetan Studies, where the Marchers are spending their first night on the road, and a restraining order was issued, claiming that the Core Marchers actions may “culminate into endangering public tranquility and breach of public peace.” The March, organized by five leading Tibetan non governmental organizations based in India, is meant to travel through New Delhi before heading towards the Indo-Tibetan border in early April.

“Tibetan refugees have the right to return to Tibet, the land from where we come from,” said Mr. Tsewang Rigzin, President of the Tibetan Youth Congress. “this is the first major obstacle we are facing but we remain committed to marching. We want to do nothing more than go back to our country and help to end the suffering of our brothers and sisters living under the brutal Chinese occupation.”

The March to Tibet includes monks, nuns, the elderly and youth who were born in exile and for whom this march provides the opportunity to see Tibet for the first time with their own eyes. Thousands of supporters, including Tibetans, Indian and westerners, accompanied the March from the Main Temple to Lower Dharamsala to show their solidarity.

“I appeal to the Indian authorities and the good people of India to support these Tibetan marchers in their desire to return to their homeland,” said Dr. B. Tsering, President of the Tibetan Women’s Association. “This is a purely nonviolent initiative modeled in the proud tradition of nonviolence promoted by the great Mahatma Gandhi.”

In preparation for the March, the Core Marchers, volunteers and Organizing Committee members attended three day training on Non-Violent Resistance and Discipline from March 6 to 8, 2008 at Dolmaling Nunnery, Dharamsala. Speakers at the workshop included Mr. Rajiv Vohra, a Gandhian and Director of Non- Violence Peace Force Asia, Delhi, and Anand Sharma, Director of the Shimla branch of the Human Rights Law Network.

The March to Tibet commenced from Dharamsala, the exile home of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and seat of the Tibetan Government in Exile, as Tibetans marked the 49 th anniversary of the 1959 national uprising in Tibet. The launch comes just five months before China is set to host the summer Olympics, and is aimed both fighting the Chinese occupation of Tibet and reinvigorating the Tibetan freedom movement.

The Tibetan people’s Uprising Movement is a global movement of Tibetans inside and outside of Tibet taking control of our political destiny. The March to Tibet, the heart of the Tibetan People’s Uprising Movement, aims to revive the spirit of the historic national uprising of 1959 and by engaging in direct action, bring about an end to China’s 60 years of illegal and brutal occupation of Tibet.

For more information, please contact the campaign coordinators:
Lobsang Yeshi: 9418-390-416
Tsering Chodup: 9418-221-605
Sherab Woeser: 9418-394-426