Dharamshala : Exiled Tibetans forgo New Year with mass demonstrations

(TibetPost-24-Feb-09)Nearly one thousand Tibetans in Dharamshala, India held a mass demonstration on 24 Feb which was organized by four exiled Tibetan NGOs in solidarity with Tibetans inside Tibet who are under brutal attack, imprisonment, and arrest by the Chinese authorities as Tibetan New Year ,and the upcoming 50th anniversary of the 1959 Tibetan Uprising on March 10th approaches."Tibetans in Dharamshala held a protest this Tuesday in solidarity with Tibetans inside Tibet, who are under attack from the Chinese government as Tibetan New Year, and the upcoming 50th anniversary of the 1959 Tibetan Uprising on March 10th approaches. China has flooded Tibet with thousands of troops in recent days; towns and villages are under constant patrol as the authorities attempt to intimidate Tibetans from carrying out protests or other acts of resistance. The recent clampdown follows ten months of the most repressive political conditions and tightest security in Tibet in three decades," said the press release, issued by four Tibetan NGOs; Tibetan Women's Association, National Democracy Party of Tibet, Former Tibetan political prisoner's Movement of Tibet (Guchushum Movement of Tibet), and Students a Free Tibet-India." The Chinese government has its finger on the trigger in Tibet, with thousands of armed troops and police ready to launch a bloody suppression of any protests by Tibetans in reacton to March 10 - the 50th anniversary of the 1959 Tibetan Uprising - and the one-year anniversary of the widespread protests that took place last year."Beijing is using overwhelming force to intimidate and suppress Tibetans before their traditional New Year on February 25th and Tibetan Uprising Day on March 10th. Last week as many as 20,000 soldiers were moved into Tibet, foreigners were banned, and the government vowed to "crush" supporters of Tibetan spiritual, His Holiness the Dalai Lama."Tibetans are being arrested on charges as extreme as having so-called "reactionary songs" on their cell phones. There is grave concern that China has set the stage for another brutal crackdown in Tibet behind closed doors, and that in the coming weeks more Tibetans will be arrested, and possibly killed, for their beliefs.""The situation inside Tibet is critical as Chinese authorities are prepared to pull the trigger on a bloody suppression of any Tibetans who dare to speak out. Global leaders and the international community must condemn China's military clampdown in Tibet and immediately demand the withdrawal of troops from Tibetan areas and allow journalists access to Tibetan areas." continued in the press release.On 23 February, around 8-9 hundred Tibetans in-exile, including monks, nuns, and foreign supporters, staged a dramatic anti-China demonstration as part of a wider movement to boycott Tibetan New Year (Tibetan: Losar) celebrations in order to protest 50 years of Chinese occupation in Tibet and the fatal crackdown in Tibet in last March.Tibetan demonstrators, including foreign supporters paraded demonized effigies of former Chinese chairman, Mao Zedong, and Hu Jintao, the current head of Chinese communist regime before setting them off on a huge fire in Dharamshala, where Tibetan Government in-Exile located, as part of a Tibetan traditional religious ritual (A traditional ritual on every 29 December of Tibetan calendar) performed by Tibetans to ward-off evils and misfortune two days before the commencement of New Year.