Tibetans in exile protest Chinese Foreign Minister's arrival in India

New Delhi, Sept 8 : Tibetans-in-exile took to streets in New Delhi to show their annoyance against visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi who arrived in the national capital today.

The Tibetan protestors carrying Tibetan flags and shouting slogans condemned the alleged Chinese atrocities against the Tibetans in their homeland and demanded that Beijing should set Tibet free.

"We are here protesting against the visitor Chinese Finance Minister Yang Jiechi to India. We are protesting that China has illegally occupied Tibet for almost 60 years and they are brutally cracking down on the Tibetans inside Tibet, especially since the recent times on the peaceful protest inside Tibet. So we are letting him (Yang Jiechi) know that China should get out of Tibet and they should stop crackdown on Tibetan people," said Tsewang Rigzin, president of the Tibetan Youth Congress (TYC).

The protesters shouted slogans urging the people of India and the world to help them in their cause of freedom of Tibet from China.

China has controlled Tibet since People's Liberation Army troops marched into the region in 1950 and Beijing considers Tibet as an integral part of its territory.

Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama fled into exile in 1959 after an abortive uprising against Chinese rule.

Critics accuse China of repressing Tibetans' religious aspirations, especially their veneration for the Dalai Lama, the exiled spiritual leader who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989.

China has accused followers of the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan Buddhist leader, of stirring riots and protests in Tibetan regions in March in a bid to upstage its Olympic preparations. The Dalai Lama has denied the claim and said he upheld China's right to host the Games.

But groups campaigning for an independent Tibet said the Beijing Olympics should be used as an opportunity to voice criticism of Chinese policy.

ANI