Today marks the forty-ninth anniversary of the flight into exile in 1959 of the Dalai Lama.  All around the globe events are being held remembering the event and focusing current attentions on China’s policies in the region and the on-going human rights abuses in Tibet.

The Hague, 10 March 2008  - For the ten years preceding 1959 China had been expanding its presence in Tibet, with tens of thousands of troops being garrisoned in the capital Lhasa, their artillery within firing range of the Dalai Lama’s imposing Potala Palace.  Tensions had heightened as the occupying Chinese forces were unable to quell dissent in what Beijing termed the ‘Autonomous Region of Tibet’.

With over two hundred thousand Chinese troops stationed in Tibet by 1955, the traditional agricultural system buckled under the demands placed upon it and famine began to spread throughout the region.  Faced with this and a centrally imposed programme of rampant modernisation, Tibetans started to chafe against the imposed Chinese administration.

The culmination in this period of strife was the unsuccessful attempt by Tibetans to assert their freedom amid rumours of Chinese plans to abduct the Dalai Lama.  Against the odds, Tibetans smuggled the Dalai Lama to safety in India at the same time as Chinese mortars began raining down on central Lhasa.

Since that day to this, Tibetans have sought to gain greater autonomy for their homeland through a campaign of sustained and unflinching nonviolence.  It is in that spirit that a series of events around the globe will mark the Dalai Lama’s flight into exile.  Tibet supporters in London marked the event on Sunday 9 March 2008 with a march from the Chinese Embassy to Whitehall, with further events planned in Australia, Canada, and Europe.

In the region itself, one hundred marchers are planning to cross the border from India’s Dharamsala, seat of the Tibetan Government-in-Exile, into Tibet in peaceful protest of China’s occupation of the ancient mountain state.  They will be joined on their way to the border by hundreds of people keen to show their continued support for the international campaign for Tibet and to raise the issue of Tibet’s subjugation and exploitation ahead of the Beijing Olympics.  During the six-month march they hope to bring international attention to the plight of Tibet.

Speaking on the occasion of the anniversary, His Holiness the Dalai Lama stated that “In Tibet, repression continues to increase with numerous unimaginable and gross violations of human rights, denial of religious freedom and politicization of religious issues… These are major obstacles the Chinese government deliberately puts in the way of its policy of unifying nationalities which discriminate between the Tibetan and Chinese people… I urge the Chinese government to bring an immediate halt to such policies”. (Source: Bloomberg)

Tibet’s strongest neighbour, India, has yet to make any statement on the march.  Nonetheless pressure is growing on China to acknowledge Tibetan rights to free expression of their culture, religion, language and heritage.  As China matures into a global economic and geopolitical player so it must assume the mantle of responsibility that comes with such power.  Failure to act fairly and responsibly over Tibet would be a disservice not only to the people of Tibet, but also to ordinary Chinese who face domestic trials of their own for which the issue of Tibet is only a distraction.