DHARAMSHALA, November 4: The president of the Tibetan Women’s Association (TWA), Dolkar Lhamo Kirti briefly met with a visiting member of the 17th Communist Party of China Central Committee, Lu Hao in the Indian capital New Delhi on Wednesday and attempted to handover a petition urging the Chinese leadership to “end the repression in Tibet that has caused the self-immolations inside Tibet”.
TWA in a release said that Dolkar Lhamo confronted Lu Hao, who is also the secretary of the CPC Gansu Provincial Committee, which has a Tibetan population of more than 400,000, at the lobby of Hotel Taj Mahal.
“Within the two minutes, Dolkar quickly briefed Lu Hao on the current self-immolation crisis in Tibet and requested that he heed to the demands of the petition titled ‘Tibetans call for Global Intervention to save Tibetan lives in Tibet,’” the release said.
“Lu said that he is in India for a different purpose (an exchange programme with the International Department of the Communist Party of China) and that he is not in a position to accept the petition and the scarf,” added the release.
The TWA delegates later left the petition and the khathak in the hands of the Chinese Embassy staff present at the hotel, to be passed on to Lu.
Following the self-immolation of eleven Tibetans, causing six deaths since March this year, TWA’s delegation – comprising of President Dolkar Lhamo Kirti and Research and Media officer Dhardon Sharling had met with various Indian leaders for a face-to-face lobbying campaign.
According to the release, the TWA delegation on November 2 held meetings with senior leaders of ruling Indian National Congress: Mani Shankar Aiyar, Chairman of Congress party’s Political Training Department and Dr Karan Singh, former ambassador to United States and UNESCO. A petition was also delivered to Sonia Gandhi through Dr Karan Singh.
The TWA delegation also had an exclusive meeting with BJP leader Sushma Swaraj on November 3.
“As the leader of the opposition party, Sushma agreed to table the Tibet issue during the upcoming winter session of the parliament beginning November 22,” the release said.
