By IANS,
Dharamsala : Czech Deputy Prime Minister Karel Schwarzenberg has expressed concern over the grim situation in Tibet at the UN Human Rights meeting in Geneva, the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) based here said Friday.
“With serious unease, we follow the continued escalation of tensions in Tibetan areas of China as evidenced by a spate of self-immolations,” Schwarzenberg said.
He said last year 22 Tibetans decided to act in such a “tragic way in order to wake up the establishment and attract our attention”.
The statement by Schwarzenberg, who is also the foreign minister, was made during the UN meeting Feb 29.
Twenty-four monks, nuns and other Tibetans have set themselves afire in the past 12 months in Tibet to protest China’s policies and to demand return of the Dalai Lama to Tibet, according to the CTA.
“The situation inside Tibet is extremely grim. Tibet is virtually sealed off. The military build-up is very heavy,” Thubten Samphel, a CTA spokesperson, told IANS.
CTA said the Chinese have launched a massive crackdown on Tibetans, who visited India for the Kalachakra teachings presided over by Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama in Bodh Gaya in Bihar in January.
The Dalai Lama along with many of his supporters fled Tibet and took refuge in India when Chinese troops moved in and took control of Lhasa in 1959.
Some 140,000 Tibetans now live in exile, over 100,000 of them in different parts of India. Over six million Tibetans live in what is now known as Tibet Autonomous Region of China.