“We are not against China or its people but are voicing our protest against the repressive policies of the Chinese Government.”

Along with the rest of the world, North-East also witnessed a wave of protests and demonstrations in support of the cause of the Tibetans.

On March 28, nearly 500 people from Miao and Tezu province took out a protest rally in Arunachal Pradesh. The rally was led by Dawa Tsering and karma Yephi, two Tibetans MPs in exile. The same group of Tibetan settlers again brought out a protest rally in Dibrugarh on March 31.  Dawa Tsering and Karma Yephi handed over a memorandum to the Dibrugarh Deputy Commissioner addressed to the Prime Minister urging him to ensure that there are no further atrocities on innocent Tibetans. On the same day, Meghalaya capital Shillong also saw a big protest march by the sizeable Tibetan population there. The Tibetan community also downed shutters of shops, business establishments and other institutions run by its members in and around Shillong. The Tibetans here too submitted a memorandum to the Meghalaya Governor.

But the last leg of the protest campaign held in Guwahati was the biggest one. The three-day protest organized by the Tibetan Solidarity Committee of North East India  saw around 600 Tibetans converge in the Assam capital from Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and upper Assam. The two MPs of the Tibetan parliament in exile again came down all the way from Dhramshala to give direction and leadership to the three-day protest.

The first day of the protest saw a day-long hunger strike by the Tibetans. Tibetan women, children along with men participated in the hunger strike. Tibetan flag flew all around the place with many young men in the group also draping themselves with the flag. A large number of protestors shaved their heads in symbolic protest against the practice of the Chinese security of shaving the heads of protestors and political activists. A good number of them even got the Tibetan flag painted on their shaven heads.

Day two saw a mock funeral procession. Dead bodies in effigy form of all those killed in Tibet by the Chinese security since March 10, the day when the Tibetans peaceful demonstrations started across the country to mark the 49th anniversary of the Tibetans National Uprising Day, were laid down for the demonstrators to mourn the massacre as well as show to the people the actual nature of the tragedy. The Tibetan women were seen crying when the effigies were brought in and laid down. All through the day there were prayers sung for peace. The protestors also took out a candle light procession in the evening.

For both these days the venue of the protest saw banners and placards occupying every possible space available crying for an end to Chinese suppression inside Tibet. Photographs of Chinese atrocities and brutally murdered Tibetans also hung around the venue. Framed pictures of Dalai Lama also hung around all around the protest venue.

The third and the last day of the three-day protest saw the Tibetans enacting skits and street plays depicting the ground situation inside Tibet, again with an aim to draw the attention of the people towards Chinese atrocities.

According to the two Tibetan MPs around 150 people have been officially killed in Tibet where as the actual figure may be around 400-500 with more than 500 injured and more than 1300 innocent Tibetans detained and tortured by Chinese security. There is door to door search and arbitory arrests are being conducted and overall there is a martial law like situation prevailing. They also said that foreign press has been asked to leave Tibet and that Tibet is being blacked out to carry out atrocities with institutional scrutiny. PLA and Chinese police are moving around disguised as monks to foment trouble in Tibet and China is doctoring footages to suit their needs to fool the world. China is also using massive state propaganda to divide the Tibetans in Tibet. To hide their dirty deeds, China is telling to the world that Dalai Lama is behind the unrest. His Holiness Dalai Lama has always asked the people to take the path of non-violence and has always treated China as friend. Why should he be behind the unrest?” said Karma Yephi, who is also the Editor-in-Chief of the Voice of Tibet.

Underlining their demand the Tibetan MPs informed that “we want an immediate dispatch of an independent fact finding delegation to Tibet, free press to cover the whole of Tibet, end to the brutal killings in the whole of Tibet, immediate release of all arrested and imprisoned Tibetans, to extend immediate medical assistance to the injured Tibetans and to allow free movement of people and provide access to daily needs.

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