Tibetans took to the street of Zürich

Tenzin Delek Rinpoche died mysteriously on Sunday, 12th July, in Chuandong prison in the southwestern Chinese Provincial city of Chengdu. The Chinese authority has ignored all the requests from his relatives and international bodies to release his body in order to perform last religious prayers. Later they cremated under strict surveillance of Chinese authority and against the wish of family members. 

Tenzin Delek was a highly respected Tibetan spiritual teacher and he was also widely known for working to develop social, medical, educational and religious institutions for Tibetan nomads in eastern Tibet, as an advocate for environmental conservation in the face of indiscriminate logging and mining projects, and as a mediator between Tibetans and Chinese. He was convicted  in December 2012 for alleged involvement in a series of unsolved bombings in his region by the Chinese authorities which he did not commit. Without given a chance of fair trial, he was since then sentenced to life imprisonment. 

His mysterious death - speedy and secret cremation in the night of 16th July, against the wish of family members - as if to remove any evidence, has led to series of protest from Tibetans worldwide. 

About 800 people participated in the protest march yesterday, in city of Zürich, which was organized jointly by the Tibetan Community in Switzerland & Liechtenstein (TCSL) and Tibetan Youth Association in Europe. The march was started from Zürich (Enge) towards the Chinese consulate in Zürich. Along the way people shouted slogans such as asking answers to the death of Tenzin Delek, Long live His Holiness the Dalai Lama and release of the political prisoners in Tibet.    

Later, in front of the consulate's building, the President of TCSL gave a speech to the gathered crowd and the President of the youth association read out petition letter to the consulate, which was then dropped into their letter box. Also ex-political prisoner rev. Golog Jigme and one near relative of Tezin Delek, Mr. Thinley Nyendak gave a detail account acount of Tenzin Delek's life in prison to the conterversial death last week. He said there was no doubt that Rinpoche was poisoned and his family back home Tibet is subjected to repeated questions from the authorities. 

The gathered crowd also shouted slogans in front of the consulate's building demanding answer to Rinpoche's death and release of political prisoners in Tibet. Few people were also seen yesterday weeping, shouting slogans in a trembling voice, emotionally battered by over 140 self-immolations. Some of them, even broke out with uncontrolled shoutings and gesture. To all the happenings unfolded there, some Chinese officials are seen taking a peek, hidden behind curtains inside the consulate. 

The rally ended peacfully with a prayers lead by Rev. Khen-Rinpoche and monks from Tibet Institute Rikon and concluding speech from Vice-President of the TCSL.

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