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by Staff Writers New Delhi (AFP) March 30, 2012
New Delhi police detained another five Tibetan demonstrators on Friday outside the hotel of Chinese President Hu Jintao amid a raging debate over a crackdown on the exile population this week. Hundreds of Tibetans have been rounded up by security forces in the Indian capital and placed in preventative detention in a heavy-handed police operation criticised by community leaders for its severity. Tibetan areas have been flooded with police, with many locals confined to their homes or hostels, while demonstrations have been prohibited in areas near the Chinese president. People of Nepalese origin and from India's far north-east have also complained they have been harassed by police because of their "Tibetan features" in apparent racial profiling. "We are refugees but we enjoy every right to protest. The Delhi police is stopping every Tibetan who wants to stand up against the Chinese injustice," said Tenzing Norbu at the India-Tibet coordination centre in New Delhi. "India has bilateral ties with China and we respect their diplomatic relations but India cannot impose unjust laws on Tibetans." In the demonstration on Friday, five protestors with messages such as "Tibet Will be Free" daubed on their chests were bundled into nearby police vehicles at the luxury hotel where Hu had been staying since Wednesday. Sujit Datta, a professor at the Jamia Millia Islamia University in New Delhi who specialises in India-China relations, said the government should have engaged with Tibetan leaders rather than resorting to repression. "Indian government has mismanaged the Tibetan protest through ham-handed and inconsistent measures. They have showed no sensitivity towards the protestors," he said. "The Tibetans are frustrated and the Indian government should recognise this," he added. Earlier in the week, a 27-year-old Tibetan exile set himself on fire in a demonstration against alleged Chinese abuses and the lack of religious freedom in Tibet. He later died after suffering more than 90 percent burns. Hu left New Delhi early Friday after attending the fourth summit of the BRICS bloc of emerging nations which brings together China, Russia, India, Brazil and South Africa. The presence of tens of thousands of Tibetans in India, as well as exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, is an irritant in the often prickly bilateral relations between India and China. Activists and the Tibetan government in exile in the Indian hill station of Dharamshala help highlight alleged human rights abuses in Tibet where media access is tightly restricted. Thousands of exiled Tibetans in Dharamshala attended the funeral ceremony and mourned the loss of protestor Jamphel Yeshi who set himself on fire in New Delhi on Monday. "Please give a noble rebirth to Jamphel Yeshi," they chanted during the last rites. Another young Buddhist monk self-immolated in southwest China on Wednesday, becoming the 30th demonstrator to take his own life in Tibetan-inhabited areas of the country since March last year, according to rights group and exiles. Chinese officials on Thursday blamed spiritual leader the Dalai Lama for the death of the Tibetan protester in New Delhi and said they "appreciated" the Indian government's actions to prevent disruption to the summit.
China News from SinoDaily.com
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