National Human Rights Commission members attend Tibet uprising event

Taipei, March 9 (CNA) Members of Taiwan's National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) for the first time attended an annual march in Taipei on Sunday organized by civic groups to commemorate the 1959 Tibetan uprising, which also called for a Tibet free and independent from Chinese rule.

Speaking during the commemoration to mark the Tibetan uprising 66 years ago, Wang Yu-ling (王幼玲), vice chairperson of the NHRC, said members of the commission under the government's watchdog agency, the Control Yuan, attended the annual event for the first time since its founding in August 2020.

The NHRC was launched to promote and protect human rights in Taiwan and fulfill the government's commitment to meet the Paris Principles, according to Wang.

The 1993 Paris Principles regulate the status and functions of national institutions for the protection and promotion of human rights known as National Human Rights Institutions.

"We believe the Tibet issue is a human right issue where the Chinese Communists Party invaded Tibet and violated a peace agreement both signed," Wang said before the march.

What the Chinese government has done in Tibet since the 1950s could be considered an act of "ethnic cleansing and genocide," she said, citing Chinese oppression of Tibetan human rights activities.

"Human rights have no borders," she said, adding that "Today's Tibet could be the future of Taiwan."

Wang said that is why the NHRC chose to stand alongside civic groups and Tibetans in Taiwan for the annual march.

Kelsang Gyaltsen Bawa, representative of the Tibetan government-in-exile to Taiwan, said before Sunday's march that it has been 66 years since the Tibetan uprising against Chinese communist rule in 1959.

Ever since the Chinese government used military force to compel Tibet to sign a Seventeen-Point Agreement in 1951, the so-called "peace deal" has since resulted in the death of more than 1.2 million Tibetans, the eradication of Tibetan culture, the destruction of more than 6,000 temples, and the self-immolation of at least 157 Tibetans in protest at Chinese rule.

Beijing's violations of clauses in the agreement, which originally promised to keep Tibetan culture, religion and education, led to the 1959 uprising, he said.

On March 10, 1959, about 10,000 Tibetans gathered in Lhasa to protest China's tightening control, but the uprising was brutally suppressed, leading to the Dalai Lama fleeing to India and around 150,000 Tibetans following him into exile overseas.

"We are gathering here today not only to commemorate the brutal crackdown but to hope that one day Tibetans will be able to return to their homeland," he said.

Kelsang Gyaltsen Bawa also said the annual event, held in Taipei since 2004, is also a reminder to people in Taiwan and the international community, that we should never forget what China has done to Tibet or the same fate is awaiting Taiwan and other places around the world.

The march, attended by around 100 participants chanting slogans such as "Free Tibet" and "Tibet belongs to Tibetans," began at 1:30 p.m. outside Exit 2 of Zhongxiao Fuxing MRT Station in downtown Taipei and concluded around 4:30 p.m. at Xinyi Smoke-Free Plaza near the Taipei 101 Building.