Tibetans Arrested Outside Chinese President's Hotel
New Delhi police detained another five Tibetan demonstrators on Friday outside the hotel of Chinese President Hu Jintao amid a raging debate over this week's crackdown on the exile population.
Hundreds of Tibetans have been rounded up by security forces in the Indian capital and placed in preventative detention in a heavy-handed police operation criticized by community leaders for its severity.
Tibetan areas have been flooded with police, with many locals confined to their homes, while demonstrations have been prohibited in areas near the Chinese president.
People of Nepalese origin and from India's far north-east have also complained they have been harassed by police because of their "Tibetan features" in apparent racial profiling.
"We are refugees but we enjoy every right to protest. The Delhi police is stopping every Tibetan who wants to stand up against the Chinese injustice," said Tenzing Norbu at the India-Tibet coordination center in New Delhi.
"India has bilateral ties with China and we respect their diplomatic relations but India cannot impose unjust laws on Tibetans."
In the demonstration on Friday, five protestors with messages such as "Tibet Will be Free" daubed on their chests were bundled into nearby police vehicles at the luxury hotel where Hu has been staying since Wednesday.
Sujit Datta, a professor at the Jamia Millia Islamia University in New Delhi who specializes in India-China relations, said the government should have engaged with Tibetan leaders beforehand rather than simply resorting to repression.
"The Indian government has mismanaged the Tibetan protest through ham-handed and inconsistent measures. They have showed no sensitivity towards the protestors," he said.
"The Tibetans are frustrated and the Indian government should recognize this."
Earlier in the week, a 27-year-old Tibetan exile set himself on fire in a demonstration against alleged Chinese abuses and the lack of religious freedom in Tibet. He later died after suffering more than 90 percent burns.
Hu left New Delhi early Friday after attending the fourth summit of the BRICS bloc of emerging nations which brings together China, Russia, India, Brazil and South Africa.
The presence of tens of thousands of Tibetans in India, as well as exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, is an irritant in the often prickly bilateral relations between India and China.
Activists and the Tibetan government in exile in the Indian hill station of Dharamshala help highlight alleged human rights abuses in Tibet where media access is tightly restricted.
Chinese officials on Thursday blamed the Dalai Lama for the death of the Tibetan protester this week and said they "appreciated" the Indian government's actions to prevent disruption to the summit.
Source: Agence France Presse
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