Tibetans to undertake peace march to Salugara

GANGTOK, 21 Nov: The Tibetan Youth Club [TYC] and the 5,000 plus strong Tibetan community living in and around Gangtok will be undertaking a peace march from Chandmari here in Gangtok to Salugara in Siliguri, West Bengal starting 23 November, informs Chung Chung Bhutia [president, TYC], while speaking to the media-persons here today.
“We will begin the peace march on 23 November from here in Gangtok and the five-day march will end on 27 November when we reach Salugara”, he added. Around 150 people from the Tibetan community [young and old] will be participating in the peace march.
“We are holding this peace march to protest against the atrocities being carried out against the Tibetan people in Tibet and also to express solidarity with the people who have self-immolated themselves for the Tibetan cause,” he said and added that the situation in Tibet was going from bad to worse. There is no freedom of religion or education and above all no freedom of speech for the Tibetans in Tibet, said Mr Bhutia and added that there is gross violation of human rights as well.
Speaking further on the peace rally, he informed that the rally will also be joined by Tibetans from Ravangla, Kalimpong, Darjeeling, Mirik and Kurseong. While the people from Ravangla will join the rally on 23 November, others will join along the way.
“We plan to cover around 20 to 25 kilometers in a day and will also be making halts during the nights. On the first day we will halt at the Water Garden at 32 Number, the second halt will be at Tarkhola, then at Rimbi, next at Sevoke before reaching Salugara,” he informed. He also stated that such peace rallies were also being organized in the other North East states.
He has further appealed to the people of Sikkim to come forward and support the peace rally and has also asked them to join them in the rally. This is the first time such a peace rally by the Tibetan community is being organized in the state, he added.
“During our march, we will be addressing the people we meet in the different towns and villages we cross in the way and also hand out pamphlets regarding our issues,” he stated. Then on 28 November, we plan to take out a mass procession from Salugara to the SDM’s office situated at Court More in Siliguri.
As on date [till November], a total of 78 people have self immolated themselves since 2009, 17 having set themselves on fire this November alone. In India there have been three deaths and four attempted self immolations till now.