By IANS,
Dharamsala : Three British parliamentarians – Norman Baker, Julie Morgan and Tim Loughton – Thursday condemned China for “torture and imprisonment of Tibetans” during a visit to this Himachal Pradesh town that houses Tibet’s government-in-exile.
The parliamentarians, who concluded their four-day visit here Thursday, told IANS that “they were here to meet people, officials and ministers of the Tibetan government-in-exile to know the ground realities about the situation in Tibet”.
“We are quite concerned about the present situation in Tibet,” said Baker, who is a member of Britain’s all-party parliamentary group on Tibet.
He termed “torture and imprisonment of Tibetans as an unacceptable behaviour of the Chinese administration”.
“We will engage our government and the European Union to try to find out a peaceful resolution to the problem,” he added.
Apart from visiting Tibetan cultural and educational institutions, the British parliamentarians observed the ongoing session of the Tibetan parliament.
“The visit is part of an exchange programme to share experiences between the UK and Tibetan parliaments and to advocate the Tibetan people to express their opinions to the British parliamentarians, initiated by the London-based Tibet Society,” said Lobsang Choedak, in-charge of the media cell of the government-in-exile.
The programme began with two visits by Tibetan parliamentarians to the Britain in 2005 and 2007, followed by British parliamentary delegation’s visit here in October 2007.
Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama has lived in India since fleeing his homeland in 1959. His government-in-exile is not recognised by any country.