DHARAMSHALA: The Central Tibetan Administration will organise a prayer service in Dharamsala on Wednesday over the continuing tragic self-immolations by Tibetans to protest against the Chinese rule.
The prayer service will be held at Tsuglagkhang, the main temple, on Wednesday (24 July) at 4:00 pm. The prayer service will be held to express solidarity will all those Tibetans who sacrificed their lives for the cause of Tibet and those suffering torture and imprisonment. Sikyong Dr. Lobsang Sangay is expected to address the gathering during the prayer service.
The self-immolation by Kunchok Sonam, an 18-year-old monk in Zoege in Tibet’s eastern region of Ngaba, last Saturday, has pushed the total self-immolations to 120. The self-immolators have called for the return of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to Tibet and freedom for Tibetans.
Meanwhile, the Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile in a statement reiterated that the Chinese government’s continued occupation of Tibet and its hardline policies to annihilate Tibetan nationality, their culture, religion and language are the root causes behind the self-immolations.
It condemned the Chinese government’s intransigence in resorting to blame game rather than investigate the reasons behind the self-immolations. The death and harsh prison sentences meted to Tibetans on false charges will not solve the problem of Tibet, it said, calling on the Chinese leadership to carry out thorough probe into the real causes behind the self-immolation incidents.
It reiterated its appeal to the United Nations and governments to send fact-finding missions to the Tibetan areas to assess the prevailing situation. It also called on the 47 member states of the UN Human Rights Council to hold an urgent meeting on the crisis in Tibet.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ms Navi Pillay, earlier this month reiterated her real concern over the grim situation in Tibet. “I have issued public statements, asking China not to treat this as a security matter but to look into the root causes of the suffering of the Tibetans and why they are seem to be driven to such extreme measures of protests such as self-immolation,” Ms Pillay said.
Ms Pillay assured that the Human Rights Council will apply same yardstick to China while reviewing and scrutinising its human rights record this October.