New Delhi (Mizzima) – Burmese and Tibetan activists in New Delhi on Thursday staged a joint demonstration to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Tiananmen Square, also known as the June 4 movement.
About a hundred Burmese and Tibetan activists shouted slogans such as ‘Long Live Dalai Lama, Aung San Suu Kyi!’ and ‘China – respect democracy and human rights!’ while marching the streets in Janta Manta Park in India’s capital city.
“Here we are getting together with Burmese to show our solidarity and support for Chinese students who were involved and killed in 1989. Today they raised their voices against the government for democracy as they didn’t want any communist party in China,” Urgen Chophel, President of the India-based Regional Tibetan Youth Congress, told Mizzima.
“Even we Tibetans have a problem with the communist party in China. Last year, the world came to know how the Tibetan people have suffered from the communist party. So, we are here, hoping that China will become a democratic country,” Chophel said.
On June 4th, 1989, the Chinese army rolled tanks into the streets near Tiananmen Square and cleared student-led protests calling for economic and democratic reforms which had been ongoing since April 14th. The bloody crackdown resulted in several protesters killed and injured.
Burmese and Tibetans, in a joint statement released on Thursday, said the Chinese government is not only suppressing democracy in their own country but also supporting military dictators in Burma.
Fifty years ago China invaded Tibet forcing the Dalai Lama, a future Nobel Peace Laureate, to flee the county. Today China supports the Burmese military regime, which is notorious for committing human rights abuses against its own citizens, the statement further added.
“China must stop supporting Burma's military regime. If not, people will never forgive and forget the way China (our big-brother) has treated and betrayed us, even after democracy is restored in Burma,” Kim, a member of the Burma Centre Delhi, said in the statement.
Following the protest march activists held a candlelight vigil at India Gate in remembrance of those killed 20 years ago at Tiananmen Square.
