By Tenzin Dharpo
DHARAMSHALA, Aug. 30: A memorial for the late Special Frontier Force commando and Tibetan refugee Nyima Tenzin was observed here in Dharamshala on the occasion of his first death anniversary. A bronze bust of the martyred soldier was unveiled by the President of the exile Tibetan government Penpa Tsering at Lhagyari hill here on Monday.
“We are marking the first death anniversary of late SFF soldier Nyima Tenzin who passed away in a landmine explosion during an operation last year. This symbolic bust also represents a memorial for all the martyred Tibetan soldiers who perished during various campaigns including the 1971 Bangladesh war and the Kargil war,” the Sikyong told the media.
The head of the Central Tibetan Administration also said that the incident that received massive media coverage last year, has made the sacrifices of the Tibetan refugees for India’s security a common knowledge. “The exploits of the Tibetan soldiers in the Indian Army is common knowledge nowadays. I cannot speak on a policy level but everybody knows what the Tibetan personnel have done,” he added.
Two other memorial busts were also unveiled in Leh, Ladakh where the slain Tibetan soldier hailed from. The funeral of Company Leader Nyima Tenzin last year was a highly publicized event with top rung leaders of the ruling party such as Ram Madhav, National General Secretary of the Bharatiya Janata Party were in attendance.
Although the optics for the Tibetan manned SFF regiment has reached an all time high, many Tibetan veterans are still knocking the court’s door for basic rights. Despite a ruling from the Delhi High Court in June 2016 that sanctioned pension benefits to SFF personnel who retired before 2009, the veterans are only receiving less than half of the benefits.
The Tibetan Ex-Servicemen Welfare Union has filed a litigation to contest for full pension as supposed to just 45% that they are receiving right now. The apex court has since postponed the hearing for the case several times, hanging the fate of the ageing veterans in a bureaucratic limbo. The pre-2009 retirees, many of whom are above the age of 60 are also facing bureaucratic challenges to avail their basic rights.
When asked about the CTA’s assistance to the veterans on the matter, Sikyong Penpa Tsering assured that his administration will do all it can to help. “I came to know about this case just recently during my official visit to Ladakh. We are currently taking stock of the case. Once we have a clear picture, then we will see how we can offer help,” the Sikyong told Phayul.
The SFF or the ‘22 establishment’ is an elite paramilitary force created in 1962 consisting of Tibetan refugee recruits by India. The soldiers of SFF had participated in Operation Eagle (securing Chittagong hills during the Bangladesh War of 1971), Operation Bluestar (clearing Amritsar’s Golden Temple in 1984), Operation Meghdoot (securing the Siachen glacier in 1984) and Operation Vijay (against Pakistan at Kargil in 1999).
One Response
It’s been one year since SFF commando Nyima Tenzin paid the ultimate sacrifice for the defence of India against the expansionist Communist regime in China. The SFF has lived up to its reputation of Tibet’s bygone heroes who fought the Chinese communist forces in the 1950s. The Liberation of Bangladesh in 1971 is so far the greatest achievement of the SFF whose forces were instrumental in defeating the Pakistani army.
The number of Pakistani forces captured by India during that war was 93,000. The SFF not only fought gallantly but they were responsible in preventing the escape of the Pakistani army. They were greatly outnumbered but still they thwarted all their attempts to escape.
This shows that sheer numbers are not what makes a victorious army. We saw this recently in Afghanistan where the Afghan National Army is said to number 300,000 and the Taliban had at the most 200,000 but the Afghan army melted like snow in the sun. This goes to prove that without the will to fight, one cannot win a war. It goes much the same with weapons system. The Afghan army had the state of the art American weapons while the Taliban had only Soviet made Kalashnikovs and bazookas at the most.
What was crucial in the war is the determination and the will to fight. The Americans likewise had all the fire power but they lacked the will to fight. What this demonstrates is that just like a ragtag Taliban who has hardly any military training in the modern sense of the word may have lacked the number and the fire power with conventional weapons such as tanks and missiles, their steely determination and their belief in their cause was what made them unbeatable. Tibetans must learn lessons from such events and must not harbour such unfounded fear that China is powerful so we are helpless mantra. This is a defeatist attitude that will only damage our determination and will to continue the struggle. The Afghans have defeated both mighty US and the Russians!!!
Both great powers were no match in terms of weapons and resources but both lacked the will to fight the Taliban and Mujahideen.
This shows that Tibetans can one day fight the Chinese because the Chinese are like the Americans and the Russians. They are foreign invaders. The Chinese army can’t survive on the harsh weather in Tibet. They are training yaks to ride for reconnaissance because the PLA can’t even breath in the high mountains!!! Today, they are training young Tibetans because the Chinese PLA is incapable of fighting in high altitude! I
Tibetans are the masters of our country and we must have the steely determination to free our country from foreign occupation. In the struggle for the Liberation of ones country every avenue must be explored because if we don’t we will be exterminated. The gradual erosion of our culture, religion and language is an unmistakable pointer to the ultimate destruction of Tibetans as a unique race with their identity. Look at what the CCP did in Hong Kong! We are like the proverbial frog in the pan at the moment. If we do nothing and continue hoping against hope that the Chinese will come to senses someday is a totally false hope that will be our greatest delusion. The Chinese have decided lock stock and barrel to exterminate Tibetans as a race and transform us into prototype Chinese so that “Tibet will belong to them forever”!!! We must act before it’s late! We must not give credence to the saying, བོད་རེ་བས་འཕོང་ and ruin ourselves forever!