Dharamshala: Today, Sunday, August 2nd 2012, is the 52nd anniversary of Tibetan democracy that thousands of Tibetans and supporters together with top officials of the three pillars of democracy and His Holiness the Dalai Lama have gathered to celebrate at the His Holiness temple in Dharamshala, India.
The speech was given at this event by the Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile members who talked about the history of the democracy which unfortunately did not evolve the same way for the Tibetan nation. The temporal and spiritual leader of Tibet, the Dalai Lama, wished to introduce these democratic ideas to his own people. While Chinese occupied the country in 1949 and burdened the people with various repressions, the goal of making Tibet democratic country was lost temporary.
Tibet's leader, followed by noble people, into exile has encouraged them to elect their own representatives and on 2nd of September 1960 the first Tibet's government was born to lead the people. The idea of free Tibet turned into a draft constitution for the future. From that time, the Parliament -in-Exile became law making organ.
Since last year, His Holiness the Dalai Lama "devoted all his political and administrative powers to the leaders directly elected by the Tibetan people", spoke Parliament's member Penpa Tsering. The works of the Carter of Tibetans in Exile and the Central Tibetan Administration in Exile were amended accordingly and organizations work towards the Tibetan cause until the issue will be resolved.
Penpa Tsering said that for the last 53 years when Chinese armed forces entered Tibet, people have been deprived of their right to practice religion freely- thousands of monasteries have been destroyed, various restrictions have been implemented on monks and nuns- all in order to destroy the religion. Nomads are also facing difficulties as they are forced to change their traditional lifestyle. Damage to the land and its wildlife in particular is another part that is being destroyed by the Chinese communists in Tibet. "The people [...] continue to suffer hell on earth through endless days and nights of strike-hard campaigns of various kind which deprive them of the right to peaceful enjoyment of all their rights and freedoms", stated the speaker of the Parliament.
The Tibetans always stood strongly and fought non-violently against the Chinese occupation. A total number of 51 of lay and clergy people have self immolated in order to draw the attention of the world while the Chinese government reacted to these protest actions with the unleash of the People's Armed Police in Tibet area. These clashes ended in countless deaths, detentions and disappearances.
Innumerable non-violent actions and peaceful projects have been held since 1959. This year the Tibet Parliament-in-Exile has launched the freedom movement known as the Flame of Truth rally on 6th of July. Started in three places in India it will continue through more than 30 countries around the world raising awareness of the cause and collecting signatures for the petition which will be presented to the UN.
Member of Parliament-in-Exile Penpa Tsering had a message to the People's Republic of China as well as other countries of the world. He encouraged the Chinese Government to not ignore Tibet issue and take responsibility for the actions in the occupied country. As for the free countries of the world, the message sent was encouragement to not only look at their own economic interests, but to spare some time and deeds in supporting the Tibetan cause.
"We would like to call with emphatic stress on the UN and many of its member countries, as well as on governments, people, organizations of various kinds, prominent public figures, journalists, and so on who support freedom and justice to carry out thorough investigations to find out the truth about the aspirations of the Tibetan people, the brutally inhuman policies being pursued by the government of China in Tibet, and truly voluminous streams of misrepresentations, lies and distortions of the facts that China continues to bring out", ending his speech underlined Penpa Tsering.
