News and Views on Tibet

Tibetans rally in India against execution in China

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Tibetan exiles staged a rally in the Indian capital Tuesday to protest the execution in China of a compatriot convicted of a series of bomb blasts.

Some 80 Tibetan men and women marched to the mausoleum of Mahatma Gandhi, India’s freedom champion, and staged the sit-in protest over the execution of Lobsang Dhondup.

The 28-year-old was put to death Sunday after his sentence was upheld by a court in Chinese southwestern Sichuan province.

An appeal by Tensin Deleg Rinpoche, a 52-year-old monk, was rejected the same day. He was given a death sentence with a two-year reprieve, which is likely to be commuted to life imprisonment.

The two Tibetans were blamed for a bomb attack last April in Sichuan’s capital Chengdu, which killed one person and injured another, as well as two explosions in the Ganzi area of the Kham Tibetan region under Sichuan provincial administration.

The execution and the rejection of the monk’s appeal have triggered condemnation from rights groups throughout the world.

The Tibetan protesters here said the trial was a gross violation of human rights.

“The execution of Dhondup was highly deplorable and his trial was neither transparent nor fair,” a statement issued by the Tibetan parliament-in-exile said.

“We consider this vile act of China as a total defiance of and blatant disregard for international laws and the concern of the international community.

“Besides, it is an attempt by China to tarnish the image of the non-violent struggle of Tibet, led by the Dalai Lama,” the statement said.

Some 100,000 Tibetans led by their spiritual leader the Dalai Lama fled to India in 1959 after China crushed an anti-Beijing uprising in the Himalayan region.

The Tibetan government-in-exile is based in the northern Indian town of Dharamsala.

The protesters said they chose their venue out of respect for Gandhi’s non-violent campaign against British colonial rule, which led to India’s independence in 1947.

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