In New Delhi today, Sherab TseDor, 25, self-immolated in front of the Chinese Embassy. While human rights are always at stake in these protests, the central concern regards the fate of the Tibetans who are currently living in Tibet under an increasingly oppressive Chinese regime. The young man read a statement before he set himself on fire and claimed that he hoped to join the "eleven martyrs" that had preceded him. Indian police, however, were able to extinguish the flames, and Sherab is currently recovering from his wounds in a Delhi hospital.
Sherab marks the twelfth Tibetan to undertake this heroic form of protest. His action also underscores the close connection felt between the Tibetans living in exile and their fellow countrymen who remain in Tibet. The mainstream cable channels in our country, where most Americans seem to get their news nowadays, has not covered the Tibetan resistance movement in any depth—it never has, in fact—and it is sad that an originally free people has been denied the kind of coverage that they deserve in our country. Still, because of the efforts of the Dalai Lama, who is bigger even than American cable, and because of the resolute will of the Tibetan people, both in Tibet and in exile, the Tibetan cause has garnered a steadily growing audience of supporters.
In fact, the newly elected Prime Minister of Tibet, Lobsang Sangay, was in our nation's capitol today to speak to the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, and the Prime Minister's speech, a long one, is a masterful treatment of American support of the Tibetan cause.
He reminds the Commission that Tibetans have taken great sustenance from American support over the years:
In very difficult times, American support keeps Tibetans’ spirits up and their hopes alive – hopes that the future may bring change that will allow Tibetans to reclaim their dignity and their fundamental freedoms.
But Tibet is at a crossroads now, it seems, as the oppression in eastern Tibet is intensifying daily and as the importation of Han Chinese into Lhasa and the surrounding areas continues at a steady pace.
Now, with the advent of the fire protests, shouldn't we move from being a more or less silent partner to Tibet's goals of freedom and democracy toward a more vocal and insistent advocate of their fundamental human rights?
Wouldn't that do wonderful things for our international reputation?
Surely, now would be an auspicious time for us to begin a more public phase of our support.
