Tibetan refugee tells story of Chinese oppression

'In Tibet, our people are not allowed to move freely. The Communist government in China is trying to cleanse everything - our language, culture, tradition and all. The protest of March last year was an outburst of Tibetan people against suppression.'

CJ: BIBIN.S.NATH

Wed, Nov 18, 2009 16:53:44 IST

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Tibetan in India :

THIRTY- NINE year old Tsewang Dhondup, still remembers the day that changed his life and fortunes. It was a Monday morning on March 24 last year, when he was hit by bullets of the Chinese armed police during a demonstration at his home town of Trehor, in Tibet.

Tsewang was hit on his left hand and stomach, during his attempt to save a wounded young monk from the police. This Tibetan farmer is one of the living evidences of the atrocities and oppression of Chinese government on Tibetan freedom fighters. Reciting his story at the Tibetan Refugee Centre at Dharamshala, Tsewang like other Tibetan peers, is hopeful of having a light at the end of the tunnel.

After spending nearly a year in the mountain caves of Tibet, saving himself from the Chinese police eyes, he crossed the Himalayan ranges, to make his way to the Tibetan settlement at Dharamshala on March 25. “In our country, our own people are not allowed to move freely. The Communist government in China is trying to cleanse everything that is of Tibet - our language, culture, tradition and all. The protest of March last year was an outburst of Tibetan people against suppression,” he said, when asked about his reason for participating in the protest march.

Dhondup also hits at the policy of forcing Tibetan farmers to grow thorns and grass in their fields. “Even for getting compensation for it, we were asked to denounce His Holiness Dalai Lama.” The Tibetan farmer also lashes out at the Chinese claims of enormous freedom in Tibet. “When our Dalai Lama is living in exile for the past 50 years and we still don’t know what happened to our Panchan Lama, how can they talk about freedom?”

The Tibetan Refugee Centre at Dharamshala opened in 1990 and is receiving thousands of refugees like Tsewang every year. Last year, the centre received about 2500 Tibetan refugees, which includes school going children, monks, ex-political prisoners and pilgrims.

Of these, only 400 return to Tibet each year, according to Ming Yur, Assistant Director of Dharamshala Refugee Centre. “Most of them afraid to go back to the Chinese administration”, Ming Yur said. It has got a reception centre at Kathmandu, in Nepal, from where the Border volunteer corps escort the refugees, first to Delhi and then to Dharamshala. Taking into consideration the increasing number of refugees each year, the centre is planning to start a new reception centre soon.

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