By IANS,
New Delhi : Concerned about increasing incidents of self-immolation by Tibetans, a petition signed by over 350,000 people advocating a resolution to the Tibet issue would be submitted to various United Nations (UN) offices Monday, the Tibetan Parliament-in-exile said Sunday.
The ‘Flame of Truth’ petition was launched July 6 on the birthday of Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama. It travelled to over 90 countries and collected 351,000 signatures, 30,000 of them online from chief ministers, parliamentarians, students, activists and journalists.
“We are submitting them simultaneously to the UN headquarters in New York, UN Human Rights Council, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva and UN Information Centre in New Delhi tomorrow,” Karma Yeshi, member of parliament, told IANS.
Dec 10 is also Universal Human Rights Day and the Tibetan leaders said it would also be observed as the “Global Solidarity Day for Tibet”.
According to Yeshi, from 2009 till Dec 8, 2012, 94 people have set themselves on fire in Tibet to protest against the Chinese rule. Of these, 79 died.
“This is indeed a sad situation that so many young Tibetans are forced to kill themselves unable to bear the oppression by the Chinese,” said Tenzin Lekshay, media coordinator of the bureau of the Dalai Lama.
Agreed Yeshi, who said that since 2008, Chinese security forces had cracked down hard on Tibetans leading to numerous deaths and tortures.
“The UN must discuss the issue of Tibet based on resolutions passed in 1959, 1961 and 1965, and an international fact-finding delegation must be sent to investigate the ongoing crisis,” said Yeshi.
“The UN must take special responsibility to ensure that basic aspirations of Tibetans inside the country are fulfilled,” he said.