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Van Bommel: China must free arrested Tibetans

31 May 2012

Van Bommel: China must free arrested Tibetans

SP Member of Parliament Harry van Bommel says that he is ‘extremely disturbed’ by recent news from the Tibetan capital city of Lhasa that hundreds of Tibetans have been arrested. ‘I’m asking Foreign Minister Uri Rosenthal to tell me what he knows about these worrying reports,’ says Van Bommel. ‘I also want the Minister to put pressure on the Chinese authorities to give the detainees fair treatment and to immediately release the non-violent activists.’

Repression by Chinese authorities in Lhasa is a reaction to the demonstration of 27th May, when two monks set fire to themselves. One died immediately, while the other was taken to hospital. This was the first time Tibetans has committed this form of immolation in the capital, but in the meantime more than thirty have adopted this form of protest against Chinese oppression. ‘The many young Tibetans who do this have lost all hope,’ says Van Bommel. ‘That’s understandable, as oppression in Tibet has being gone on for generations.’

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