Students for Free Tibet with the support of the Tibetan diaspora and friends of Tibet in France, commemorated the 110th declaration for reaffirming Tibetan Independence at the Place de la Republique in Paris on February 13.
On February 13, 1913, the 13th Dalai Lama and the Tibetan people restored Tibet as a sovereign nation and proclaimed Tibetan independence after the failed invasion of the Manchu army. For years, the Tibetan community have been protesting against China’s illegal occupation and gross human rights violations committed by China in Tibet. Every year Tibetan people commemorate the anniversary and proclaim Tibet as a free nation.
Around 50 people participated in the protest demonstration in Paris where they shouted slogans demanding an end to Chinese rights violations in Tibet and freedom from China’s control.
Tenzin Choedon, Students for Free Tibet France President said, “Today we’re here in Paris to commemorate the 110th anniversary of the independence of Tibet.”
She further said, “This day is particularly important today because it represents the right to sovereign people to decide for itself what kind of political regime it wants. It’s an international right that is given to all people’s of the world but it has been denied Tibet for the past 110 years.”
Tenzin Choedon said, “It is particularly important that us young Tibetans in Paris are gathered here today to commemorate this anniversary. Because to this day, as we speak, a million spent children as young as four years old are interned in colonial boarding schools where they are separated by force from their families, where they are taught to think, to speak, and even to dreams in Chinese, and Mandarin.”
Tenzin Choedon accused the Chinese state and Chinese police of collecting Tibetan DNA.
Students for Free Tibet France President said, “This is an attempt to assimilate them in the Chinese nation. Along with that, we have been witnessing the harvesting of Tibetan DNA.”
Tibetan DNA being collected by force by the Chinese state and the Chinese police, helped by an American company called Thermo Fisher, to create a bank, a huge bank of Tibetan DNA. We have no idea what they’re going to do with such a huge amount of DNA,” she said.
Later in the day, a conference was held at the Maison des Associations in the 11th district of Paris to discuss the historical context of Tibetan independence. The three panellists in the conference were Tibetologist Katia Buffetrille, Tibetan Parliament in exile MP Thupten Gyatso, and Students for Free Tibet France President Tenzin Choedon.
During the discussions, all three panellists agreed on the historical grounds that Tibet has always been a free and independent country and Tibetans were entitled to the right to self-determination to decide their own political future.
Meanwhile in India also, the Foundation for Non-Violent Alternatives (FNVA) in association with Students for a Free Tibet (SFT), organized a discussion on ‘Tibet’s independence and illegal occupation’ in the national capital New Delhi.
Every year Tibetan people commemorate the anniversary and proclaim Tibet as a free nation. Through these events they also call upon the international community to express solidarity for the people of Tibet who have been living under illegal occupation by China for several years.
