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Six Tibetans replace arrested hunger strikers

The New Delhi police swooped down on the fasting Tibetan activists early on Monday morning and forcibly hospitalised the last three strikers on the 49th day of their fast unto death.

A supporter tried self immolation in protest against the action. He suffered 90 per cent burn injuries.

There was high drama at Jantar Mantar, the venue of the fast, when about 500 police personnel armed with batons, cracked down on the activists at 0600 hours. They pulled down the tent in which the remaining three of the six hunger strikers were on fast.

The strikers are being given intravenous fluids. Doctors said they were out of danger.

The police had forcibly removed the other three strikers and hospitalised them early on Sunday.

The Tibetan activists are striking to free their homeland from Chinese occupation.

The police entered the tent from the back and smashed the belongings of the protestors. Pictures of Mahatma Gandhi and of Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama were broken in the melee.

A 60-year-old volunteer, Thupten Ngodup, attempted self immolation when volunteers, including women, failed to stop the police from taking away the strikers. He is in a critical condition at the Ram Manohar Lohia hospital.

Tibetan Youth Congress president Tseten Norbu, an organiser of the fast, said the strike would continue with six more protestors replacing the arrested. He named the six activists who would take over.

"We will continue our protest till our demands are met,'' he said.

The demands include implementing the recommendations of the International Commission of Jurists which calls for the United Nation's intervention.

Norbu said the police arrested several volunteers, including women. He himself was detained for an hour. He alleged that the police manhandled one of the strikers, 'throwing' him inside a waiting truck 'like a sack.'

The police, for their part, refused comment on the incident.

Interestingly, the entire drama has taken place when a Chinese military delegation headed by General Fu Quanyou, chief of the People's Liberation Army, is on an official visit to India. Norbu alleged that the police action on the strikers was ''linked'' to the visit.

''Indian leaders want to appease the Chinese. Otherwise they could have taken the action long ago,'' he charged.

Criticising India for its ''hypocritical attitude'' to the Tibetan cause, Norbu said, ''India boasts of its democratic values and Gandhian principles. Yet we were treated in the most inhuman way by the police. Ours was a Gandhian way of protest and we did not harm anybody.

''One thing is very clear to us now. We have no political friends. We may have sympathisers but we do not have any supporters. We are totally disappointed with India because in the police action against peaceful demonstrators this morning there was nothing democratic.''

He also expressed bitterness against the international community and human rights organisations. ''There have been statements but no concrete support when it is needed. Everybody backs out,'' he said.

Meanwhile, about 300 armed police personnel are camping near the destroyed tent in view of the 200-odd demonstrators there.

T C Tethong, a representative of the Dalai Lama, has arrived at the site. He said he had come to pacify the protestors and report back to the spiritual leader. However, demonstrators booed him and accused him of siding with the Indian authorities.

UNI

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