Tibetans stage protests against visiting Chinese delegation

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Tibetans on Tuesday staged protests, including one in front of Hyderabad House, in the capital against the visit of a Chinese delegation led by State Councillor Dai Bingguo for border talks.

Over a dozen Tibetan youths were detained by police outside Hyderabad House as they gathered there ahead of the arrival of the visiting delegation for talks with the Indian representatives.

While a group of seven Delhi University students, who are members of the Tibetan Youth Congress (TYC), staged a sit-in near the media gate of Hyderabad House, another group arrived near the VIP gate in an auto-rickshaw and started shouting slogans.

India and China on Monday began talks to put in place a mechanism for management of the border between the two nations, an issue that has been an irritant in bilateral relations.

Carrying banners which read, 'Sino India border talk is a sham,' and, 'Don't trust China. 1962..,' the members of TYC Delhi claimed that there is no reason for China to hold border talks with India, as the McMohan line is in Tibet.

"Why is China holding border talks with India when it does not share one with her? The McMohan line is in Tibet," TYC member Tsering Gyalpo, a student of Kirori Mal college, said.

They also submitted a memorandum to central government in which they said, "Until China's forceful invasion of Tibet in 1949, India shared its northern border with Tibet and not China. It was an independent Tibet, which signed an agreement in 1914 demarcating the line between India and Tibet, China has nothing to do with it."

"These talks can bear no concrete or long-term resolution as long as the issue of Tibet is not included in the agenda for discussion. The two countries cannot continue to ignore the elephant in the room and rewrite history," it said.

Accompanying the protesters was 76-year-old Tibetan Yeshi Choezon who lives in Majnu ka Tila. "I hope to go home soon, to a free Tibet," she said.

Another protest was also held at Jantar Mantar where the agitators burnt Bingguo's effigies. Holding placards and wearing 'Save Tibet' bandanas, the protesters shouted slogans against the Chinese delegation and demanded that China end the "illegal occupation" of their homeland.