Exiled Tibetans in Dharamsala have sought the intervention of the international community to put pressure on China to stop its crackdown in Tibet.
Dharamsala, Mar 20 : Exiled Tibetans in Dharamsala have sought the intervention of the international community to put pressure on China to stop its crackdown in Tibet.
Shouting anti-China slogans, hundreds of monks, nuns and young children demanded action by the international community to restrain China.
"All media and all international community are looking on the Tibetan issue because there has been crackdown inside Tibet by the Chinese authorities. So, is this really what the international community wants? If they are really working about what they are saying then I think this is the time to act upon what the Chinese are doing inside Tibet," said Dolma, an activist.
Tibetan exiles across the globe are expressing their solidarity for Tibetans in China by protesting for a free Tibet.
They are demanding that the Beijing Olympic games be stopped. They also called for the exiled Dalai Lama to be allowed to live in Tibet.
The crackdown on the protests in Tibet and neighbouring Chinese provinces, which may have killed dozens of people, had sparked calls for a boycott of the Games.
China accuses the exiled leader of Tibetan Buddhists, the Dalai Lama, of orchestrating the rash of monk-led protests and rioting -- the most serious in the Himalayan region for nearly two decades -- in a bid to wreck the August 8-24 Games.
The spiritual leader, however, denies masterminding the protests, which culminated last Friday in riots in Lhasa.
The exiled Tibetan Government claims that so far 99 people have died in the clashes in Lhasa and other Tibetan cities. Beijing, however, says that only 13 "innocent civilians" have been killed in the violence.
The Chinese authorities are keen to stamp out the unrest quickly and restore stability in the far-west before the Olympics, which they hope will showcase China's prosperity and unity.
New Delhi is treading a delicate balance with its giant neighbour, with whom it is trying to expand diplomatic and trade ties after decades of rivalry that included a brief war in 1962.
A major irritant is that India plays host to the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala, scene of daily protests in the past week. Throughout the day, cries ofFree Tibet" have echoed across the hill station as protesters waving or wearing Tibetan flags clog the town's sloping streets.
Indian police appeared to have softened their stance on Tibetan protesters marching to the Chinese border, allowing a group of marchers to continue on their way from Dharamsala.
Last week a group of about 100 marchers were detained by police on orders of the Indian government, but a second group, which picked up the route from where the first group was stopped, has been allowed to go ahead.
The marchers are planning to get to Tibet via New Delhi, where they hope to coincide with the arrival the Olympic torch as it passes through the Indian capital.
ANI