World Tibet Network News Sunday, April 26, 1998

By DONNA BRYSON, Associated Press Writer

NEW DELHI, India APRIL. 26, (AP) -- Tibetan protesters picked up by police after 48 days of hunger strike responded well to medical treatment Sunday, but local activists blamed authorities from interfering in their quest to highlight the Tibetan cause.

One of the protesters was in the intensive care unit of a government hospital. Two others who had grown considerably weak earlier, were likely to be released in a day or two, according to Pema Lhundhup, joint secretary of the Tibetan Youth Congress, which sponsored the strike.

All three of them were given nutrients intravenously and were responding well to the treatment, Lhundhup quoted a doctor at the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital as saying.

For several days, police have watched the six protesters, aged 25 to 70, with anxiety as they lost more than 22 pounds since they began the fast to demand that the United Nations intervene to resolve the dispute over Tibet, which China occupied in 1950.

Government doctors sent to investigate said all six were showing signs of chronic starvation and should be hospitalized. They were picked up after midnight Saturday as dozens of Tibetan monks and supporters camping nearby were asleep, a police officer said.

Suicide is illegal in India, and officials had long been expected to forcibly end the strike. Police rarely press any charges in these cases. Past attempts to pick them up have been frustrated by the large contingent of supporters and the media.

It was not clear when police would try to take the remaining three to the hospital.

Tseten Norbu, president of the Tibetan Youth Congress, said the protest

will continue with other volunteers until the U.N. debates the Tibetan issue.

Lhundhup alleged that police officers dragged the protesters to waiting

ambulances and jeeps and at least one of them was treated roughly. But Dr.

Ramesh of the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital said none was bruised or scratched.

Lhundhup said several supporters who slept in the area prevented police

from trying to force the other demonstrators to call off their strike against

their wishes.

The six Tibetans had lived on only water flavored with lemon juice since

March 10.

The hunger strikers have urged the United Nations to send a special human rights investigator to Tibet. They also want it to supervise a referendum to

determine whether Tibetans want independence, autonomy within China, or some

other status; and resume debate on Tibet in the General Assembly.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and U.N. human rights chief Mary Robinson have both issued statements pleading with the hunger strikers to stop their protest on humanitarian grounds, but said only U.N. member states can address their demands.