Fasting Tibetans expect positive UN response
05:44 a.m. Apr 08, 1998 Eastern
By Y.P. Rajesh
NEW DELHI, April 8 (Reuters) - The Tibetan Youth Congress (TYC) said on Wednesday it was confident of a positive response from the United Nations to its demands on Tibetan autonomy.
``We have been informed by our representatives at the U.N. Human Rights Commission in Geneva that we can expect a positive response soon,'' TYC president Tseten Norbu told Reuters.
``The fast-unto-death by six Tibetans here and the relay fast by several hundred other Tibetans has begun to make an impact,'' he said.
The fast in the Indian capital by five TYC members and a 68-year-old Tibetan woman entered its 30th day on Wednesday.
They want the United Nations General Assembly to resume its debate on Chinese-occupied Tibet, the appointment of a special rapporteur to investigate human rights in Tibet, and the appointment of a special envoy to promote a peaceful settlement.
Chinese forces entered Tibet in 1950, ending its centuries of near-totalitarian autonomy. The Dalai Lama, the spiritual head of the Tibetans, fled to India in 1959 and has since campaigned for Tibetan autonomy.
The six Tibetans have been living on lime juice and water since March 10. A traditional Tibetan doctor and a nurse monitor their health, and they have been supported by other Tibetans fasting for shorter durations.
Six groups of 15 TYC members have fasted for 120 hours each at Raj Ghat, the memorial in New Delhi for Mahatma Gandhi, who used fasting as a political weapon in India's struggle for independence from Britain. On Wednesday, 200 Tibetans completed a 48-hour fast and were to be replaced by another group.
``We are on our way to achieving our goal as news of our hunger-strike has got immense publicity across the world,'' said one of the six, Youngdung Tsering, 28, a traditional Tibetan painter from Dharamsala in the north Indian state of Himachal Pradesh.
``Our bodies may be growing weak but our spirit is strong,'' he said as he sat on his bed in a tent, where a photograph of Gandhi was on prominent display.
``We have received letters of support from U.S. Congressmen, European Parliament members, Australian senators and Lithuanian parliamentarians,'' said Norbu.
Last month Hollywood actor Richard Gere, a supporter of the Tibetan movement for autonomy and a disciple of the Dalai Lama, visited the hunger strikers.
The Dalai Lama met the hunger strikers on April 2 and said he could not offer them an alternative though he considered fasting a violent method of agitation.
However, Norbu said the TYC would not call off the hunger strike even if the Dalai Lama asked them to.
``In the past we called off similar hunger strikes in Geneva and New York after the intervention of His Holiness (the Dalai Lama),'' Norbu said. ``But this time we have written to him not to intervene and he has accepted our wishes.'' ^REUTERS@
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