Video of Bold Expression of Allegiance to His Holiness from Inside Tibet Released  [Tuesday, 3 August 2010, 3:30 p.m.]

Rongye Adrak/File

Dharamshala:
Human rights groups have released a video footage showing Rongye Adrak
openly expressing Tibetan people’s loyalty to His Holiness the Dalai
Lama in front of an audience of thousands, including Chinese military
officials, during a traditional horse festival in Tibet’s Lithang
region on 1 August 2007.  (click here for video) Rongye Adrak, a 56-year-old Tibetan nomad, is serving an eight-year prison sentence for supporting His Holiness the Dalai Lama.The
video release was to mark the third anniversary of the incident, the
US-based International Campaign for Tibet said in a statement issued 2
August. ICT said the footage which it received
from a foreigner who happened to be at the horse festival does not
capture Adrak’s full statement. The
footage, subtitled in English, shows an extract of Rongye Adrak’s bold
on-stage statement in the moments after he seized the microphone to
speak and before he was arrested and imprisoned.   He [Adrak] spoke for several minutes before he was detained by armed police who made their way to the stage, ICT said.  “…These
things have happened to us; did you hear what has happened to us?
Although we can move our bodies, we cannot express what is in our
hearts. You know? These days there are those who say we don’t need the
Dalai Lama. The Dalai Lama is the one that we six million Tibetans
truly [need],” read the English translation of Adrak’s speech. “I
saw him walk onto the stage, which was full of Chinese military and
officials. He was very calm, very dignified and he spoke clearly. I
couldn’t understand what he was saying because I don’t know the Kham
dialect, but I could see Tibetans around me shaking their heads in
sadness, because they were fearful for him, and others openly agreeing
with him,” it quoted an eyewitness as saying. Sources who
witnessed the incident report that Rongye Adrak also called His
Holiness the Dalai Lama to return home to Tibet, ICT said.  According
to the International Tibet Support Network, new information from Tibet
indicates that there are fears for Rongye Adrak’s health and that of
his nephew Adak Lopoe, a senior monk from Lithang sentenced to ten
years, and Tibetan art teacher and musician Kunkhyen, sentenced to nine
years, both for allegedly attempting to provide pictures and
information about the protest to overseas organisations.Rongye
Adak’s family members have only met him and Atruk Lopo once in the past
three years. The meeting occurred after 50 people filed a request to
local Chinese officials. Rongye Adak, the father of 11 children, has
poor eyesight, said ITSN, a global coalition of Tibet support
organisations worldwide.