NEW DELHI: Around 70 representatives of persecuted minority groups from more than a dozen countries including China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Mongolia have held closed-door deliberations in Dharamshala on the theme “China and the Changing Global Order: Prospects and Challenges.”
The delegates, including representatives of China’s Uyghurs community, also met His Highness Dalai Lama on Saturday, sources said.
“There was a three-day event organised by the Tibet Policy Institute on the premises of the College for Higher Tibetan Studies at Sarah and these delegates spoke about the atrocities inflicted upon the minorities in China and how the dissenters could get together to return to a democratic process,” Tibet Policy Institute said in a statement
The delegates were shown a video documentary on Uyghurs and Tibetans, titled ‘A shared agenda for national survival and justice’.
The delegates deliberated on how they could get their issues noticed by the international community, which is fixated on the circumstances created by the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
“For the past 63 years that we have been under exile, we have learnt to govern under a democratic process – despite facing stiff opposition from China. All the groups here have major challenges from the Chinese government and their policies on minorities and we want to resolve this without the use of any violence. But we need to be united in order to bring about reform,” said SikyongPempa Tsering from the Central Tibetian Administration, while addressing the delegates.
Tsering told the gathering that the persecuted minorities must make every effort to convince the international community that although Russia may be the short-term threat, the long–term threat would come from China with its vast trade and infrastructure network.
“We have to reach out to the European Union, which needs to realise that the immediate threat may be Russia – but the long-term threat is China which has expanded its trade network with them and soon it will become difficult for them to tame the dragon,” Tsering said.
The delegates were also urged to detail the situation of the minority groups in their regions. According to sources, there was a detailed discussion about setting up a Tibetian language or Tibetian History and Literature Broadcasting in Taiwan.