UN Secretary-General reacts to Tibetan hunger strikers in New York

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4. Tibetans Demand UN Action on Human Rights (Video at Link)

Tibetans Demand UN Action on Human Rights
March 20, 2012
Margaret Besheer | United Nations

Three Tibetan independence activists are nearly one month into a hunger strike outside of the United Nations in New York. They promise to continue their water-only fast until a fact-finding mission is sent to their homeland to assess the human rights situation there. On Monday night, New York police and medics forcibly transported the oldest striker, Dorjee Gyalpo, to a local hospital out of concern for his deteriorating condition. He remains in hospital but has refused food and is only accepting intravenous fluids.

Hunger striker Dorjee Gyalpo says he is prepared to lay down his life to get international intervention for his homeland, where more than 20 people have set themselves on fire in the past year to demand independence from China and the return of Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.

Recently, two busloads of supporters from Dorjee’s Tibetan-American community in Minnesota came to show their solidarity with him and the other two hunger strikers.

In addition to a U.N. fact-finding mission, the activists also want the release of political prisoners, foreign media access to Tibet, the end to China's policy of so-called patriotic re-education, and pressure on Beijing to lift what they say is undeclared martial law.

More: Voice of America Story