By Tenzin W Shakya
San Francisco, CA, March 29- Tibetan Youth Congress of San Francisco led a protest yesterday with SFTEAM TIBET and local Tibetans and their supporters in the San Francisco Bay Area to combat the enforced celebration of “Serf’s Emancipation Day” in Tibet which they called “50 years of Enslavement”.
The event began with a peace march in Berkeley where protesters were handing out reports of Tibet’s history before and after the Chinese invasion saying “China’s notion of liberation is only one-sided where the benefits lie only for the Chinese government themselves and not for the people of Tibet”.
“March 28th of 1959 was when China seized complete control of Tibet and forced his Holiness the Dalai Lama to flee his own land… This celebration will take place at a time of high tension in Tibet when the entire region remains under de facto martial law enforced in fear of another Tibetan National Uprising” said Tsering Dorjee, President of SF Regional Tibetan Youth Congress.
Protesters continued the march at the Chinese Consulate in San Francisco where they shouted slogan, “Enough is enough… 50 Years is Enough” “Human Rights in Tibet” and “Let Media access in Tibet… Let the truth come out”
Just two days ago CNN reported that Google said the Chinese authorities blocked YouTube in China, a move widely suspected to be in response to a video released by the Tibetan Government-in-Exile that shows Chinese security forces beating handcuffed Tibetans and graphic footage of a Tibetan man who died after being tortured by police.
“The footage confirms Chinese forces used extreme violence against Tibetans following the widespread protests in Tibet last year” Said Nyendak Wangden of Student For a Free Tibet.
“This enforced national holiday is just another propaganda tool that the Chinese government created to stamp the word “liberation” as a justification for the illegal invasion of Tibet 50 years ago” said Dhondup Dorjee, Vice President of the Tibetan Youth Congress in India.
Dorjee continued asking the question on the legitimacy of the Chinese government’s “Liberation”. He spoke to the hundreds of people and shouted “Who are the Chinese government liberating” “It’s obviously not the Tibetans in Tibet because the Lhasa Uprising of last year proves that the Tibetans in Tibet are not liberated by China, instead they are still resisting and fighting for freedom from the oppressive government” said Dorjee.
The event ended with a political theater in which the Tibetan Youths commemorated the freedom fighters of Tibet in the last 5 decade and profiled their personal stories in which they gave the reason for why they want to see a “Free Tibet liberation” led by the Tibetans in Tibet and not an “enforced liberation” constructed by the Chinese Government.
Dhondup Wangyal, 19-year-old, participant of the political theater said “If Tibet is really liberated as the Chinese government perpetrates, then why are there still so many Tibetans still fighting against the inhumane policies established by China in Tibet to oppress specifically the Tibetans as minorities in their own land”.
