By Tenam
Paris, 16 March: A group of Tibetans stormed the Chinese Embassy in Paris this afternoon. One Tibetan protester climbed the Chinese Embassy and replaced the Chinese flag with the Tibetan National Flag.
Tibetans and Tibetan supporters in thousand, in an appeal by the Tibetan Community here had gathered few blocks away from the Chinese embassy. After a while a group of Tibetan broke away from the cordoned area and started running towards the Chinese Embassy. After a brief scuffle with the police in front of the Embassy, the protesters realized that one Tibetan had climbed the wall and was headed towards the Chinese flag. The crowd cheered when the Tibetan flag replaced the Chinese flag.
Earlier today French Senators expressed grave concern at the situation in Tibet and the brutal Chinese response to it.
“We express our grave concern at the situation in Tibet, especially after the announcement of the brutal reprisals by the Chinese authorities to the demonstrators”, said Louis de Broissia, President of Tibet Information Group at the French Parliament.
In response to His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s call for an international probe into the current situation in Tibet, the French parliamentarians have asked for a visa “as soon as next week” to visit Tibet, reported French news channel.
“We ask Hu Jintao to take full responsibility for the criminal military repression against peaceful civilian protesters who had simply expressed their political opinion,” said Thupten Gyatso, President of Tibetan Community of France. He also appealed to the UN to form a committee for an independent and objective investigation into the recent events in Tibet.
The candle light vigil in Paris was organized to express solidarity with Tibetans inside Tibet and were joined by Vietnamese, Cambodians and Burmese activist. French MP Patrick Bloche and Jean Marc Brulé also attended the vigil and expressed their solidarity with Tibetan people.
In the Liévin, north France, the Deputy Mayor Jean-Pierre Kucheida raised the Tibetan national flag on the city hall to express the city’s solidarity with the Tibetan people in Tibet.
The war of words in the recent situation in Tibet doesn’t seem just limited to Chinese government making ridiculous accusations at His Holiness the Dalai Lama. As the Chinese authorities have become shriller, Tibet and Tibetan activists have reported very high frequency of rude comments to youtube videos by Tibetans and about Tibet since the past few days. One only has to search for one Tibet related video and see the comments. It seems that blocking youtube in China is not enough.
