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Unto Death Hunger Strike
TYC HUNGER STRIKE UPDATE: April 27, 1998
ABC Radio News, Monday afternoon, April 27
Three remaining Tibetan hunger strikers in India have been forced to end their protest by police who intervened to stop them from harming themselves.
The hunger strikers have been taken to hospital by police on the 49th day of their fast.
Organisers have said new volunteers will take the place of anyone who's forced to stop ... and that the hunger strike will continue until the UN intervenes in the dispute between China, and independence activists in its Tibet province.
Police have monitored the protest action since six people began to live only on water flavoured with lemon juice in early March.
They took the first three of the hunger strikers to hospital on the weekend.
Suicide is illegal in India, and officials had long been expected to forcibly end the strike.
Tibetan sets himself on fire as fasters hauled off
NEW DELHI, April 27 (Reuters) - Shouting "Long live his holiness, the Dalai Lama! Long live Tibet!," a Tibetan activist set himself on fire on Monday to protest against police moves to halt a hunger strike.
Police threw water on Thupten Ngodup to douse the flames and rushed him to New Delhi's Ram Manohar Lohia hospital, where one doctor told Reuters his chance of survival was "negligible."
Tibetan Youth Congress (TYC) workers said at least 400 Indian police and paramilitary officers had swooped on a tent in central New Delhi where six Tibetans began a fast on March 10 to protest against Chinese occupation of their homeland.
They said police on Sunday hauled three of the six to hospital to be put on glucose and multi-vitamin drips and did the same with the other three on Monday after dawn broke on the 48th day of the fast.
As the last three strikers were carried away, Ngodup, 50, shouted his pro-Dalai Lama, pro-Tibet slogans and set himself alight.
Ngodup poured some sort of flammable liquid on himself, the Press Trust of India news agency reported. There were no other immediate details. "Chances of survival are negligible. He has got almost 100 percent burns. His condition is very critical. It is only a matter of days," said the doctor, who asked not to be identified.
Ngodup, his face charred and the rest of his body swathed in bandages, whispered to fellow-activists as he was moved to the burns unit in the hospital.
"I did it for my country," they quoted him as saying.
One of the six strikers, Kunsang (eds: ne name), told Reuters from his hospital bed that he would fast again after he was discharged.
"I was arrested this morning. They gave me this drip. A lot of police came," said Kunsang, who was born in Tibet in 1928 and fled to India 30 years later.
"It's not finished," he said, his voice barely audible. "We will start again after getting out of the hospital. I am sad that this has happened." The protesters want the U.N. General Assembly to resume debate on Tibet and are seeking the appointment of a special rapporteur to investigate human rights in the Himalayan region.
Chinese forces entered Tibet in 1950, ending its centuries of autonomy. The Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of the Tibetans, fled to India in 1959 after an abortive uprising against the region's new rulers.
TYC President Tseten Norbu said he believed the authorities had moved to stop the protest because China's Chief of General Staff, Fu Quanyou, was in New Delhi for the start of what India has described as a "goodwill visit."
He said at least 400 security personnel were involved in the raid and 16 people were detained.
A police officer told Reuters there were about 100 police and 100 paramilitary personnel at the scene and no force was used.
The Dalai Lama, who was due to travel to New Delhi on Tuesday, had previously admired the determination of the hunger strikers but said their fast to death was itself a kind of violence.
U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan had urged the Tibetans to end the strike, saying only member states of the United Nations had the power to seek the resumption of debate on Tibet.
The Tibet issue is a touchy one at the United Nations as China is a permanent member of the 15-seat Security Council and would oppose strongly any concrete U.N. action as interference in its internal affairs.
Statement by TYC
The Tibetan Youth Congress is deeply anguished by the disruption of our first batch of unto-death hunger strike by the Government of India. This morning, at 6, the police forcibly took away our remaining three hunger strikers on the 49th day of their fast. Not only this, the police acted most brutally, dumping the weak strikers on ambulances and kicking men and women who attempted to prevent the strikers from being removed. In an insidious move, the police ripped the back of our tent and pulled out Palzom, woman striker, together with her bed, from behind the tent.
Thupten Ngodup, a 60-year-old veteran of Bangladesh liberation war, burned himself at Jantar Mantar this morning. Although nearby Tibetans managed to extinguish the fire, he is in a critical condition right now. Ngodup's action demonstrates the general sense of frustration among the Tibetans at the lack of tangible support for the Tibetan cause, the inaction of the United Nations and the intransigence of the Chinese government to resolve the Tibetan problem. If the issue of Tibet remains unresolved for a longer time, there will be many such acts of desperation.
Our present strike was essentially a peaceful and democratic means of protest, the method which Mahatma Gandhi taught the world. We were not causing inconvenience to any one in our host country. Therefore, we fail to understand why India, the largest democracy, acted in such an undemocratic manner this morning. What is more, the strike was not directed against India. It was directed against the United Nations for its inaction in resolving the problem of Tibet.
We were only asking the United Nations to act on the recommendations made by the International Commission of Jurists. We were asking the United Nations to resume debate on Tibet, to appoint a Special Envoy to promote a peaceful settlement of the question of Tibet and a UN-supervised plebiscite to ascertain the wishes of the Tibetan people.
The United Nations has not yet fulfilled our demands. And this morning we realized that we Tibetans have no political allies. Therefore, we will continue this movement till our demands are met. The following Tibetans will participate in the second round of unto-death fast:
1) Venerable Jampa Kalsang, age 23, male
2) Tsering Dorjee, age 37, male
3) Kalden Norbu, age 47, male
4) Tsering Gonkyab, age 55, male
5) Thupten Ngodup, age 60, male
6) Phuntsok Semsang, age 25, male
The Tibetan Youth Congress will not end our present movement until we receive
a positive response to fulfill our demands.
Tseten Norbu
President
TYC
27 April 1998