Tibetans arrested for protesting an end to Chinese rule during visit to India of China's top Law-Maker

DHARAMSALA, 16 November - Hundreds of angry Tibetan young men and women greeted Qiao Shi, the chairman of the National People's Congress, with free-Tibet chants when his motorcade drove into Delhi yesterday on his first leg of visit to India.

The demonstration split into three groups, and one of the group managed to press right in front of the line in full view of the speeding motorcade, and demanded where the Panchen Lama was.

Altogether, 18 Tibetan protestors have been detained by the Delhi police.

The protesting Tibetans were especially incensed with Qiao Shi, the former head of the public security bureau, the Chinese version of the KGB. It was Qiao Shi when he was the head of this apparatus that he called for "merciless repression" during the 1988 and 1998 independence demonstrations which rocked the Tibetan capital of Lhasa, and which led to the imposition of martial law in the city.

Tomorrow Qiao Shi is scheduled to visit Agra and the world famous Taj Mahal. One of the leaders of the demonstration vowed that she and her army of protesting Tibetans would be there so that Qiao Shi got a clear message from the exiled Tibetans that they will not give up their struggle for the freedom and independence of Tibet.

Qiao Shi is on a five-day visit to India, which will take him to some of the major industrial cities of India.

The current round of demonstrations during his visit are been organised by the Tibetan Youth Congress and the Tibetan Women's Association, both of which have far-flung membership base.

Thubten Samphel

Department of Information and Internatonal Relations Dharamsala

16 November 1995