Sunday, January 14, 2007

Dharamsala protests Liu Yangdong's ongoing India visit


Dharamsala, January 15, 2007 : "Demanding justice for Tibet", Tibetans and their supporters in Dharamsala today, under the banner of four pro-Tibet organisations staged a protest march leading from the main McLeod Ganj Square till the main Temple.

The demonstration procession was held to protest the ongoing six-day visit to India by Liu Yangdon, the Head of United Front Work Department of the Communist Party of China's (CPC) Central Committee. Although the purpose of her visit could not be established, Ms. Liu is currently in India since January 8 and will leave tomorrow, the organisers said.

Although the protest march was called upon on a very short-notice, it was participated by an overwhelmingly large crowd, including monks and nuns.

Tibetan Women's Association (TWA), Cu-Chu-Sum Movement for Tibet, Students for a Free Tibet (SFT) and Friends of Tibet (India) (FOT) are the four organising group.

According to the organisers; the UFWD of People's Republic of China (PRC) was responsible for forcing upon the independent Tibet the infamous 17 Point Agreement with which China now claims to have peacefully liberated Tibet. But since the signing of the agreement reportedly under duress on May 23, 1951, the official occupation of Tibet started, which unleashed an unprecedented death and destruction in Tibet.

Interestingly, it is through this department that Tibetan Government in Exile, based here in Dharamsala and led by the exiled Tibetan leader, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, establishes its direct contact with China. Since 2002, five rounds of delegation of the Dalai Lama have met with the different officials of UFWD. During the second round, the delegation actually met with the Liu Yangdong.

So far, there have been no concrete outcomes. TGIE, however, continues to create favourable condition to keep the dialogue process going with China in an effort to reach a possible negotiation stage. Since the Dalai Lama conceded the complete independence stance for Tibet for a "Genuine Autonomy" way back in late 80s, TGIE has been continuously working on to settle the vexed issue of Tibet by seeking a meaningful and acceptable autonomy for Tibetans.

But there are sections of Tibetans who are still determined to struggle until Tibet's lost independence is completely restored.

Speaking on the occasion, Ven. Ngawang Woeber, the President of the Gu-Chu-Sum Movement for Tibet said, "We will not, in anyway, allow UFWD to achieve its goal for which it is so purposefully established, especially when it comes to the Tibetan case". "We are historically and culturally unique from China and, there is no way to merge with the political aspirations of Communist China," observed Ven. Woeber.

"Through this platform, we want to urge China to continue with the dialogue process to the next level and resolve the issue of Tibet in a meaningful way", said Dr. B. Tsering, the President of TWA, in her address to the gathering.
The UFWD in the PRC is a broad coalition of different political groupings managed and led by Central committee of the CPC. The group is united in their work to oppose and control other hostile forces and, bring them in allegiance with the mainline Communist China. Besides the Communist Party, the department consists of eight democratic parties of China.

A Han by nationality, Liu Yandong is a native of Nantong, Jiangsu Province. Born in 1945, she joined the CPC in 1964 and joined the work force in 1970. Presently she is also the Member of the 16th CPC Central Committee and the Vice-Chairman of the 10th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

Liu Yangdong was appointed the new head of the UFWD in 2002 by the Central Committee of the CPC to replace the then its head, Wang Zhaoguo.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home