For Immediate Release
Nainital - After the 4th day, 19 Tibetan Marchers still remain under police detention despite request from the Marchers at Banspatan in Pithoragarh District, Uttarkhand. The District authorities served immediate notification to 5 foreigners accompanying the March to Tibet to leave India within one week. They are Maryla Cross, Poland; Jim Peterson, USA; Edward Lex Pelger, USA; Paul Christians Buntz, Norway; and David Huang, USA.
The supporters who have been on the March since March 10 had an emotional farewell at Banspatan. They left the site covered in Khatas (white Tibetan scarf). “They are all Tibet supporters and supporters of this non-violent movement. It’s really disturbing for us and the Marchers to see them leave us after months of walking together,” said Ngawang Woebar, President of Gu-Chu-Sum, the Ex-Political Prisoners’ Movement of Tibet.
Another group of 15 Tibetans, mostly monks were stopped and sent back 4 kms before Seraghat. These Tibetans came all the way from Mundgod Tibetan Settlement in South India and were disappointed not being able to join the Marchers at Banspatan but they are still determined to do any Non Violent protest.
The March to Tibet started on March 10th from Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh, and reached Banspatan after traversing many states over the course of 76 days. Tibetans living in exile in India launched the March to Tibet as part of the Tibetan People’s Uprising Movement. On the same day the march was launched, monks of monasteries in Lhasa, as well as in eastern Tibet, led peaceful protests, shouting slogans calling for Tibetan independence and the return of the Dalai Lama to Tibet. These protests rippled across Tibet, and the Chinese authorities launched a brutal crackdown that has resulted in the killing and detention of thousands of Tibetans by the Chinese Police.
The March to Tibet and the Tibetan People’s Uprising Movement aim to revive the spirit of the Tibetan National Uprising of 1959, and engage in non-violent direct action to bring about an end to China’s illegal occupation of Tibet.