DHARAMSHALA, India (AFP) — Tibetan exiles in India were set to begin marching to their homeland Monday as part of protests marking the Dalai Lama's escape from China in 1959 and the run-up to the Beijing Olympics.
The group of 100 marchers say they plan to make it over the Chinese border, but are not giving away where in the mountains they intend to cross or what their exact planned destination is, although they say it could take up to six months to complete.
The marchers are seen as unlikely to reach or make it over the mountainous border without avoiding arrest.
"The 'Return-Home' march is to tell the world that we Tibetans are the rightful owners of Tibet," one of the march organisers, Lobsang Yeshi, told AFP Sunday.
He was speaking in Dharamshala, a Tibetan enclave in India's Himalayan foothills and the place the Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama made his home after a failed uprising against China forced him to flee 49 years ago.
"The marchers have received intensive training to prepare their body and soul to anticipate the hurdles during this long march," said B. Thering, president of the Tibetan Women's Association, which is spearheading the march.
Well-wishers handed out bright yellow Tibetan flags Sunday to passers-by and to the hand-picked marchers, both men and women, from five pro-independence Tibetan groups.
Hundreds more are expected to join in along the way, organisers said.
Organisers were tight-lipped about the route of the proposed march because New Delhi prohibits Tibetans from using India as a springboard for anti-China campaigns.
"We don't know how we could be stopped because the United Nations says no refugee can be stopped from going back home," Thering said.
The trek, which is frowned upon by the Tibetan government-in-exile, highlights a rift between the Dalai Lama and younger Tibetans frustrated by China's grip over Tibet.
The spiritual leader has long distanced himself from calls for independence, pleading instead for a "middle path" of more autonomy from China for the region.
Tibetan prime minister Samdhong Rinpoche told AFP his government-in-exile had nothing to do with the now-controversial march.
"Its purely an NGO activity and we have issued no guidelines to them because our movement is now at an international level, drawing the highest standard of support," Rinpoche said in an interview.
He also said contacts between Tibetan mediators and the Chinese leadership were still on.
"Talks are going on with China and the momentum is now at a juncture of critical decisions as we have made our aspirations very clear and the ball is in China's court," he said.
Thubten Samphel, a spokesman of the Tibetan government-in-exile, also cautioned the march could spark "repercussions" if activists began "any activity inside China."
On Saturday, the Dalai Lama expressed his support for August's Beijing Olympics and said calls by Tibetan support groups to boycott the games were "too radical."
But Tibetan groups are planning to step up their protests in the run-up to the Olympics and are planning a rival "Tibetan Olympics" in Dharamshala in May.
Tibetan Women's Association's Thering said Tibetans could no longer stay quiet in the face of alleged human rights abuses by China.
"As Tibetans should we keep quiet while Chinese arrogance grows?"
China has ruled Tibet since 1951, a year after sending troops in to "liberate" the region.
Copyright © 2010 AFP. All rights reserved. More »
