TAIPEI: Hundreds of people took out a march in Taipei on the weekend to commemorate the 66th anniversary of Tibetan Uprising Day on Monday, honouring those who participated in the rebellion against the Chinese Communist Party's rule.
Commemorating the people killed in the Tibetan uprising the demonstrators during the march on Sunday protested against the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) cultural and ethnic genocide in Tibet, Taiwan’s leading newspaper Taipei Times reported.
Members of Taiwan's National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) attended the march, the first time that the commission has participated in the annual event.
Attending the march, Vice Chairperson Wang Yu-ling Wang said the issues in Tibet are human rights matters, as the CCP invaded and occupied Tibet under the pretense of a peace agreement, and it is continuing to destroy Tibetan culture and religion.
“Human rights have no borders, as it is a universal value, and today’s Tibet could be the future of Taiwan, ” she added, local media in Taiwan reported.
Kelsang Gyaltsen Bawa, representative of the Tibetan government in exile to Taiwan, attended the event and said this year’s march theme was “Tibet has never been part of China.”
He stated that in 1951, the CCP used force to compel Tibet to sign the Seventeen-Point Agreement, or the “Agreement on Measures for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet, ” but then occupied Tibet, resulting in the deaths of more than 1.2 million Tibetans.
Bawa said the so-called “peace agreement” was malicious, and in the year it was signed, Chinese troops occupied Tibet, tearing up the agreement that promised Tibetans the right to self-government, Taipei Times reported.
On March 10, 1959, about 10, 000 Tibetans gathered in Lhasa to protest China's tightening control, but the uprising was brutally suppressed, leading to the Dalai Lama fleeing to India and around 150, 000 Tibetans following him into exile overseas.
Bawa further stated that the annual event, held in Taipei since 2004, is also a "reminder to people in Taiwan and the international community that we should never forget what China has done to Tibet or that the same fate is awaiting Taiwan and other places around the world, " local media outlet Focus Taiwan reported.
During the ongoing 58th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk delivered an important address to the international community, highlighting significant concerns regarding human rights in China, with a focus on Tibet, East Turkestan, and Hong Kong.
Tibet was the central focus of the High Commissioner’s address. He expressed deep concern about the continued restrictions on freedom of expression, religion, and belief in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR).
In particular, Turk drew attention to education policies that undermine Tibetan culture and identity, noting that such measures, along with broader societal restrictions, continue to have a significant impact on the rights and freedoms of Tibetans living in the region, Central Tibetan Administration reported.