Tibetan
Youth Congress
General
Secretary
Pema
Lhundup
Interviewed
by Larry Gerstein, President,
International Tibet Independence Movement
June, 11 1999
Dharamsala, India
LHUNDUP: Actually last year when we did the hunger strike in Delhi that time on the sixth or seventh day we declared temporary hold on the hunger strike because of many reasons. The primary reasons was that there were lots of people individuals, NGOs and parliamentarians and also some countries like Costa Rica, Norway involved who sent their message to us that they will raise the Tibetan issue with the Chinese leaders and also the UN in multilateral talks. But at the same time, they requested to us to either hold this hunger strike or stop so that they can pursue their work with the Chinese leaders. Also in the UN because they felt that if the hunger strike goes on it is quite impossible for them to resume their talk with the UN because if the UN comes under pressure or the UN listens to them then hunger strikes might be called by other countries in this world that have similar problems and every country will come up with similar actions. So they told us that we should stop this hunger strike so that they can proceed on with their work with the UN. And also there was pressure from the Indian government. And also from the Tibetan government who was coming under heavy pressure from the Indian government. And the Indian government was coming under heavy pressure from the Chinese government. It was a very diplomatic thing going around in Delhi at that time. There was a point that the Tibetan government was under pressure where its establishment was in danger. So we had to, then we declared the hunger strike temporary on hold, six to seven days, but during that time there were many people who ask us that you have done two hunger strikes. The first group there were six people and in second group there were five people and all these people they were either a general member of the Tibetan Youth Congress or from the grassroots people. So why don't the people from the central committee of the TYC participate in the hunger strike? Since you are the leaders? You are the initiators? Then we declared that in the third batch TYC central committee members would sit in the hunger strike.
ITIM: You are talking about sitting in the hunger strike in Delhi last year?
LHUNDUP: Yeah, last year. So after the hold on that hunger strike in Delhi, we waited for the UN General Assembly to come up with some positive results on the demands of the TYC hunger strike. But nothing came out from the UN and in the last 10 months there was no development on the Tibetan issue.
ITIM: Not even from Mary Robinson's office?
LHUNDUP: No, no. One thing she really said was that she would give us a commitment that when she visits China in September she will talk with the Chinese leaders and then see that she is able to visit Tibet. And she did visit Tibet last year. But we consider her visit to Tibet last year as unsuccessful because she was not given the access to meet directly with the people in Tibet and with the political prisoners. She was always guarded by Chinese people and there was a Chinese translator and since she doesn't speak Tibetan you know it is up to the Chinese translator what was said. They may give misinformation to her. After the General Assembly, we here in TYC again resolved that since nothing has happened 'til now, now it is time for us to resume our hunger strike and the most appropriate and right time will be in Geneva while the UN Commission on Human Rights session was going on. So that was how we all decided to do this hunger strike. After deciding this, for the first few months we kept everything very confidential because TYC has been initiating very aggressive and forceful actions in exile and there was mounting pressure from the Chinese government to the Indian government that TYC's movement must be checked. So the Indian intelligence bureau were always on the watch what the TYC's was doing. So we kept everything very much secret. We didn't even disclose this to our family. And it was important that we be able to slip outside India so that we are not stopped at the airport. Wen we reached Geneva we applied for accreditation from the Commission to do the hunger strike. We pushed our demands in the lobby with many of the delegates but it was really very hard to meet with them. Then we started the strike. We decided to start the hunger strike on the fifth because from the second to the fifth the Commission remained closed for Easter holiday.