(TibetanReview.net, Mar09, 2018) – Brushing aside protests staged by a couple of Chinese businessmen on Mar 2, the Northampton Borough Council on Mar 5 raised the Tibetan national flag in front of the Guildhall in Northampton in England. The annual event took place on the 19th consecutive year, ahead of the 59th anniversary of the Tibetan National Uprising of Mar 10.
Around 140 people, mostly from the Northampton area, were stated to have witnessed the flag raising ceremony and listened to the speech delivered by the guests.
The Mayor of Northampton, Councillor Gareth Eales; Deputy Leader of Northampton Borough Council, Councillor Phil Larratt; and the London-based Representative of His Holiness the Dalai Lama for Northern Europe, Baltic States and Poland, Chonpel Tsering were stated to be among those present. They were stated to have jointly hoisted the Tibetan flag with the annual event’s organizer Caroline Scattergood.
In his address the Mayor was stated to have reiterated Northampton Borough Council’s strong support for the annual Tibetan flag-raising event and for the need to highlight the human rights situation in Tibet.
Also, ahead of the Tibet uprising anniversary, a coalition of Tibet Groups consisting of the Tibetan Community in Britain, Free Tibet, Tibet Society and Students for a Free Tibet called on British Parliamentarians on Mar 7 in their UK Tibet Lobby Day 2018.
