World Tibet Network News Thursday, April 16, 1998

Los Angeles Times, Wednesday, April 15, 1998

NEW DELHI, India--Tibetan hunger strikers said Wednesday they were prepared to die unless the United Nations intervened in their dispute with China.

The six Tibetans -five men and one woman -passed the 36th day of their strike without any sign of relenting, despite pleas from U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and the Dalai Lama not to endanger their lives. The strikers' diet consists only of water and lemon juice. The strike is longest and most drastic protest staged in India against China's 48-year rule of Tibet and reflects a growing frustration among the 100,000 exiles in India over Beijing's still iron grip over the disputed region.

The protesters are demanding the United Nations supervise a referendum to determine whether Tibetans want independence, autonomy within China, or some other status. They are also asking the world body to appoint a Tibet human-rights investigator and hold a debate on Tibet in the General Assembly.

One of the hunger strikers, 50-year-old Dawa Gyalpo, described the group's demands as "cheap." Gyalpo, his chest and cheeks sunken, barely resembles the chubby-cheeked, smiling visage that appears on an identification card describing him as a long-standing member of the Tibetan Youth Congress, the sponsor of the strike.

In the Tuesday statement urging the strikers not to risk their lives, the U.N. secretary-general made no reference to their demands. U.N. leaders generally avoids taking sides on issues involving any of the five permanent members of the Security Council-China, the United States, Britain, France and Russia.

But Adama Dieng, secretary-general of the Geneva-based International Commission of Jurists, said in New Delhi this week he believed the United Nations would soon act.

The hunger strikers' demands are based on ICJ proposals for resolving the standoff over Tibet.

The Dalai Lama -the revered spiritual and political leader of exiled Tibetans -says China has resorted to human rights abuses to control the region and is trying to stamp out Tibetan culture.

The Dalai Lama has urged an end to the hunger strike, saying it constitutes violence against oneself and therefore violates his commitment to peaceful protest.

But the six say they are undeterred.

In a statement, the six said Annan's plea to stop their strike failed to address their demands the United Nations consider recommendations to resolve the dispute between China, which considers Tibet one of its provinces, and Tibetans, who want self-rule.

Yungdrung Tsering, 28, said his long-estranged father traveled to New Delhi from the northern Indian city of Dharmsala when he heard on the radio that his son was among the strikers.

"I told him, `Don't cry, I'm doing this for my nation," Tsering said. Rising from his wooden cot is enough to leave Tsering dizzy. He can no longer concentrate enough to work on the Buddhist religious icons he learned to paint at a Tibetan school in Dharmsala. His throat is so parched that talking is painful.

The president of the Tibetan Youth Congress, Tseten Norbu, said doctors monitoring the strikers told him they can go without food as long as 50 days before their conditions become life-threatening. The strike is the longest ever staged by the congress, Norbu said. He said similar protests had erred in the past by giving up at the urging of the Dalai Lama or because of promises from officials that were never kept.

All the strikers have prepared wills.