World Tibet Network News Monday, April 27, 1998

TIMES, Monday, April 27 1998 SOUTH ASIA

BY CHRISTOPHER THOMAS IN DELHI

INDIAN police stopped a 48-day public hunger strike by three Tibetan exiles yesterday, days before they were likely to die of starvation. Three others, who are barely able to speak, were left to continue their fast, apparently after the police were intimidated by the screaming of 50 Buddhist nuns protesting at their intervention.

The six protesters - the oldest of them is 70 - lying in a tent pitched on a pavement in central Delhi have been demanding intervention by the United Nations to free Tibet from Chinese control. Buddhist supporters had arrived in large numbers hours before the police raid.

The youngest of three protesters taken to hospital, Karma Sichoe, 25, was in intensive care after allegedly being handled roughly by the police.