2009-03-27 Demonstration at Chinese Embassy, London | Photo 02

27 March 2009. On the eve of “Serfs Emancipation Day”, a new public holiday that the Chinese government has imposed on the Tibetan people, ex-political prisoner, Palden Gyatso, was joined by members of the UK Tibetan community in a demonstration outside the Chinese embassy in London.

Kneeling on the pavement, handcuffed and gagged, wearing shirts with the message “I’m Tibetan and I am NOT emancipated”, the group gave a strong rebuttal to the Chinese government’s hypocritical and cynical propaganda that Tibetans were liberated 50 years ago.If they had taken thi s action inside Tibet, they would have been met with swift and brutal reprisals that could have resulted in beatings, detention and even death.

Palden Gyatso, witness to China’s brutal crackdown in Tibet following the Tibetan people’s uprising in 1959 said, “We are remembering this day not as the day when Tibet was liberated, but imprisoned instead. Before China’s Red Army marched into Tibet, we enjoyed freedom of speech, freedom of movement and freedom of religion. But since the invasion, repressive surveillance and restrictions were imposed.”

Tibet Society Chairman, Fredrick Hyde-Chambers, and Chief Executive, Philippa Carrick, joined this historic demonstration that exercised the basic human right to freedom of peaceful assembly, a right denied Tibetans in Tibet.

Philippa Carrick said, “it is salutary to think that if we had done this simple action in Lhasa, we would have been risking our lives and the lives of our families. The situation inside Tibet is critical; after 50 years of occupation, subjugation and repression, Tibetans are desperate. What little news that gets out of Tibet tells of continued demonstrations, arrests, severe crackdowns and, tragically, suicides. A member of the group protesting here today recently received news that his best friend, Tashi Sangpo, a Tibetan monk from the Amdo Golok Ragya monastery, committed suicide. Unfortunately this is not an isolated incident and is a tragic indication of the current intense frustration and despair Tibetans are feeling inside Tibet.”

Palden Gyatso's Serfs Emancipation Day message: www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQdbQVt0LB4&feature=channel_pagewww.tibetsociety.com