Lithuania: On 17 May, members of the Lithuanian Tibet Support Group organised a rally next to the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Vilnius, Lithuania to mark the 26th anniversary of the involuntary disappearance of the 11th Panchen Lama of Tibet and to raise public awareness and draw the attention of politicians to the situation of political prisoners and constant Human Rights Violations in Tibet, Hong Kong and Xinjiang region. MP Jurgita Sejonienė, member of the Seimas also participated in the rally.
As per the event organiser, the mission of this event is to encourage Lithuanian politicians not to stop defending Human Rights in China, actively express their democratic values and provisions and base their relationship with China on an international commitment to freedom, humanity and solidarity.
Tibetan supporter Robertas Mažeika said this specific day was chosen not randomly. On 17 May 1995, Chinese officials arrested and took away a 6-year-old Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, who was acknowledged as the 11th reincarnation of Panchen Lama three days prior with his family. 26 years passed, the fate of Gedhun Choekyi Nyima and his family is still unknown. This six-year-old boy is considered the youngest political prisoner in the world.
“Over the past years, Western democratic countries heard the news about Xinjiang internment camps known for their brutality in which more than a million Uighurs are suspected to be held as prisoners, about persecution, surveillance, assimilation and forced renunciation of tradition, culture and faith of Muslim minorities in this region that Human Rights activists and international experts are calling a genocide.
We must recognize that similar strategies and policies that are considered as dangerous precedents by United Nations, as well as other Human Rights organisations, are being implemented by China in Tibet for the last 60 years. Moreover, new technologies are used to deal with other ethnic minorities, political prisoners and Hong Kong freedom activists and the scale and implementation of which is becoming more and more radical in the country. For this reason, civil society must point out these crimes against humanity that are being carried out by Chinese government under the guise of lies, intimidation and economic blackmail,” said Robertas Mažeika.
He further said that the 2008 Beijing Olympic games are also to be remembered as it was hoped to be a push towards more democratic changes as well as a Human Rights improvement in the country. ‘Unfortunately, China used these games as a legitimisation of policies towards ethnic minorities and as a result Human Rights violations afterwards became more brutal. It was then that the world was shocked by the wave of Tibetan self-immolations and soon after news about the situation in the Xinjiang region surfaced. The current situation forces us to doubt the goodwill of the Chinese government and its openness to democratic values. Therefore, this international sporting event should not become a pretext to strengthen crimes against humanity carried out by the Chinese Communist Party’.
– Filed by Office of Tibet, London