(TibetanReview.net, Oct11, 2015) – With the United Nations paying no heed to the three executive members of the Tibetan Youth Congress (TYC) who have been on an infinite hunger strike in the Indian capital New Delhi since Sep 10, urging it to address the tragic situation in their Chinese ruled homeland, the Speaker of the Tibetan Parliament in Exile has on Oct 9 urged the world body for immediate intervention to save the situation, said the exile Tibetan administration at Dharamshala, India, on its Tibet.net website Oct 9. The statement did not say which UN official or body Speaker Penpa Tsering had written to.
He was stated to have expressed concern at the deteriorating health of the three Tibetans and urged the UN to meet the five demands made by the hunger strikers to resolve the issue of Tibet. These include raising the issue of Tibet in the UN General Assembly, which concluded recently in New York City, and the UN Human Rights Council Session in Geneva. The UN is also urged to pressure China to address the demands of the more than 140 Tibetans who had carried out protest self-immolation since Feb 2009.
Also, the parliament’s Deputy Speaker, Khenpo Sonam Tenphel, joined by members of the exile parliament’s Standing Committee, visited the three hunger strikers on Oct 8. The hunger strikers also want the UN to demand evidence from China that the 11th Panchen Lama Gendun Choekyi Nyima, Tibet’s second most prominent religious figure, is still alive, and to seek to send a fact-finding delegation to assess the current critical situation in Tibet.
While TYC executive members Tamding Hrichoe and Tenzin Wangchuk are continuing their hunger-strike at Jantar Mantar, Ms Tsewang Dolma was forcibly taken to hospital by police on Oct 12 after her health became critical.
The TYC is the largest grassroots Tibetan organization. It campaigns for the restoration of Tibet’s independence from Chinese occupation rule. The exile Tibetan administration, on the other hand, seeks only a semblance of internal self-rule for an ethnically united Tibetan region under the communist party of China rule.