Monks march in US for free Tibet

Monks march in US for free Tibet
AGENCIES

LOS ANGELES, MAY 31: Some 15 Tibetan monks and other activists are walking 200 km from San Diego to Los Angeles, hoping to increase public awareness about Tibet, an activist said late on Tuesday.

Among the marchers are Chinese dissident Harry Wu, a US resident, and Palden Gyatso, a monk imprisoned for more than three decades after the Chinese occupation of Tibet began in 1951, said Tenzin Dorjee of the Thubten Dhargye Ling Tibetan Center here.

The march began in San Diego's Embarcadero Park on Monday, where some 150 people holding signs with slogans such as ``China out of Tibet'' gathered to send off the marchers. ``The main purpose of the march is to create more awareness among American people about the cause of Tibet,'' Dorjee said.

The Tibetan activist said people should know that even with the normalization of trade relations between the United States and China, ``still human rights abuses are getting worse in Tibet''. The marchers will walk about 16 km a day, and plan to arrive in Los Angeles on June 24, Dorjee said. There, they are to meet with another group that Left from San Francisco several weeks ago after a demonstration in Front of the Chinese Consulate there.

In its annual report on global human rights, the US State Department this year cited serious human rights abuses in Tibet, giving examples of individual Tibetan Buddhist monks and nuns being jailed, beaten and dying shortly after being released.