China invaded Tibet in 1949 with military force, and consolidated its occupation on the Roof of the World in 1959, when the Tibetan leader His Holiness the Dalai Lama escaped to India.

On this day, March 10 in 1959, the Tibetan people rose in uprising against the Chinese occupation of Tibet and on this day thousands of Tibetans gathered in the streets of Lhasa against the Chinese. People Liberation Army indiscriminately suppressed the public uprising violently and in the massacre hundreds of Tibetans were killed. Two days later, the Tibetan women stood up in uprising.

Ever since China's occupation of Tibet, China destroyed more than six thousand monasteries and more than a million Tibetans were killed. Today Tibet is flooded by Chinese; Tibetans are a minority in their own country, Chinese is the official language and it is the language of media and commerce. Tibet will soon die if the world does not support the Tibetans at this crucial period in the history of Tibet.

Since the occupation, for the first time in history India had to face China on its northern border. In 1962 China waged a war against India. Today India has to spend crores of rupees every day on her Himalayan borders. It was a time in history when India and Tibet lived as friendly neighbours and Tibet was a natural buffer zone between India and China. Today China and its influences in other Asian countries have surrounded India creating insecurity and destroying the peace in Asia.

Tibetans in Tibet lived difficult lives everyday under the tight state vigilance; informers have infested the lives of common people. Every year more than three thousand Tibetans escaped Tibet from Chinese persecution and also to escape the cinicisation of their language, culture and memory.

Even in such danger to their lives, Tibetans in Tibet boldly stand for an independent Tibet whether in public or in jail. We salute the courage and commitment of the Tibetans in their determination to make Tibet an independent once again.

For Friends of Tibet (INDIA), the Tibetans in Tibet are our source of inspiration and we stand with them in solidarity. The goal of an independent Tibet is the sacred aim of the six million Tibetans out of which more than a one million died in its long freedom struggle. We stand with the Tibetan people in their struggle for a free and independent Tibet.

Friends of Tibet (India)
Bombay, March 10, 2005

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