World Tibet Network News Sunday, April 26, 1998

by Jay Shankar

NEW DELHI, April 26 (AFP) - Indian authorities Sunday cracked down on Tibetans who have been on hunger strike here since March 10, forcibly taking three of the six protestors to hospital.

The pre-dawn action in the heart of the city came ahead of a planned first-ever trip to India by a Chinese army chief, prompting allegations that New Delhi had buckled under diplomatic pressure.

Three of the hunger-strikers, who have been demanding freedom for their homeland from Chinese rule, were forced off the pavement where they had been

camping and bundled into an ambulance by some 200 policemen.

The Tibetans had refused food for nearly 50 days, and the protest -- the

first of its kind by Tibetans in India -- had attracted worldwide attention,

including appeals by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.

The Tibetan Youth Congress (TYC) said the three Tibetan hunger strikers

were being dip-fed with glucose in hospital while the other three were still

continuing their fast.

"We are aggrieved by ... the manner in which the police handled our strikers," TYC president Tseten Norbu said here in a statement. "Dawa Gyalpo (50 years) vomited as he was thrown into the ambulance."

The other two who were shifted to hospital were Karma Sichoe, 25, and Dawa Tsering, 53.

TYC chief Norbu said the crackdown was an attempt by the Indian government to appease China ahead of the arrival of General Fu Quanyou, head of the General Staff of the People's Liberation Army.

Norbu told AFP: "The forceful hospitalisation of three Tibetans coincides with the arrival of General Fu. It was a move meant to placate the Chinese

leadership at the cost of Tibetan issue.

"It is a bad development. The police behaved badly with us and the treatment meted out to the three protestors was inhuman."

Norbu said more than 100 members of the TYC had decided to form a "human shield" around the three other hunger strikers, including a woman, to prevent the police from removing them.

"We will continue our protest till our demands are met," Norbu said. "There should be positive response from the United Nations, and there is no way we will back out."

India says the visit by General Fu beginning late Sunday will boost "confidence-building measures" between the two Asian neighbours which fought a brief border war in 1962.

Analysts say the visit could be overshadowed over China's alleged missile technology sales to Pakistan. Indian police had warned the hunger strikers on Saturday that they risked arrest if they refused to be hospitalised. Doctors warned that the health of the fasters was deteriorating.

India is home to the Dalai Lama, spiritual leader of six million Tibetans.

He has lived in exile in the northern Indian hill town of Dharamsala since

fleeing his homeland in 1959 following a failed anti-China uprising.

The Dalai Lama's government-in-exile is not recognised by any country.

More than 100,000 Tibetan refugees also live in India.