Europeans mark Tibet revolt with Brussels march

March 10, Reuter

Thousands of people from across Europe marched through Brussels on Sunday in a colourful and peaceful protest marking the 37th anniversary of Tibet's national revolt against an invasion by China. The demonstrators, chanting pro-independence slogans and singing songs, gathered outside the Chinese embassy, waving hundreds of Tibetan flags. "We want a free Tibet...it is only a question of time,'' one of them, 30-year-old Lobsang Tsonang, told Reuter. Led by Samdhong Rinpoche, the President of Tibet's Parliament in exile, the demonstrators then went on to the European Parliament. They carried banners with slogans such as "China go home'' and "Save Tibet". Police estimated that 3,750 people were demonstrating, including EU Humanitarian Aid Commissioner Emma Bonino and members of the European Parliament, as well as people from throughout Europe.

Some 87,000 Tibetans were killed in the invasion by China and Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, his government and around 100,000 people fled into exile. In a statement read at the demonstration by his Paris representative, Dalai Lama said there had been a general hardening of Chinese policy.

"This is reflected in an increasingly aggressive posture towards the peoples of Taiwan and HongKong and in intensified repression in Tibet," Tibet's exiled god-king said. "Nevertheless, it remains my strong conviction that change for the better is coming,'' his statement added. China asserted sovereignty over Tibet, sending troops to purge Tibetan "feudalism'' and install socialism, after communists took control of China in 1949.

REUTER