India Criticized for Thwarting Tibetan Hunger Strike
Tibetan activists accused India of interfering with their protest of China’s iron grip on Tibet after police forced three hunger strikers to end a fast Sunday after 48 days.
Tseten Norbu, the president of the Tibetan Youth Congress, said authorities interfered with the strike because of a visit to India on Sunday by China’s army chief, Gen. Fu Quanyou.
There was no immediate comment from the Indian government. But suicide is illegal in India, and officials had long been expected to forcibly end the strike.
The strikers want the United Nations to send a human rights investigator to Tibet and to supervise a referendum allowing Tibet to choose independence, autonomy within China or some other status.
Police picked up three of six hunger strikers after midnight Saturday as dozens of Tibetan monks and supporters camping nearby were asleep, police said. The three were the weakest of the six.
All three strikers were given nutrients intravenously, said Pema Lhundhup of the Tibetan group.
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