DHARAMSHALA, December 14: Tibetans and supporters across the world commemorated the 63rd Human Rights Day with protest marches and campaigns calling on China to respect the fundamental human rights in Tibet, Saturday.
Tibetans and supporters in the Australian capital city of Canberra carried out a 24-hour hunger strike in front of the Chinese embassy, culminating with a peace march on December 10, which was attended by over 300 people.
Australian Greens spokeswoman for human rights and Tibet, Sarah Hanson-Young, while addressing the gathering said that Tibet was currently facing the worst conditions in half a century.
"We always get told about how careful a line we need to walk because of the China-Australia trade agreements but I think we can walk and chew at the same time," she said. "We can't continue to use timidness as an excuse not to speak out on human rights issues because we think it might make some people uncomfortable".
Waving Tibetan national flags and raising ‘free Tibet’ slogans the marchers paraded a white coffin, carrying names and photos of the 12 Tibetans who have set their bodies on fire protesting China’s occupation of Tibet since March this year.
Elsewhere, Tibetans in the Indian state of Gujarat held a demonstration, urging the UN to intervene in the current crisis in Tibet and take up the ongoing human rights abuses in Tibet with China through its various channels.
More than a hundred students of the M.S. University Baroda along with Tibetans from the Tibetan sweater market held a peace march from the Tibetan Market to City Centre of Gandhi Chowk, one of the busiest zones in the city.
Meanwhile in Los Angeles, local Tibetans, joined by several other organisations held a “March of Human Rights” from City Hall in Downtown Los Angeles to the Chinese Consulate.
A large number of Chinese joined members of the Tibetan community of Southern California in demanding the release of all political prisoners in Tibet and China during the march.
Tibetans and Italian supporters from all over Italy carried out a protest at Piazza Bonomell, in close vicinity of the Chinese Consulate in Milan, expressing their resentment against the ongoing social, economical and political repression of the Tibetans in Tibet.
The participants displayed a large banner of 52 Tibetan national flags, all numbered and stitched together, representing 52 years of Chinese occupation of Tibet.
Speaker of the Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile, Penpa Tsering who is currently on an official tour of Italy joined the protesters. Addressing the gathering, Tsering pointed out that the13 self immolations in Tibet is a clear sign of the deep desperation and sheer frustration that Tibetans in Tibet have accumulated in the last 52 years of Chinese rule in Tibet.
Source: Phayul.com
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