http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-03/27/content_11085382.htmBEIJING, March 27 (Xinhua) -- The emancipation of one million serfs in Tibet 50 years ago is a historic movement that deserves to be celebrated and remembered by 1.3 billion Chinese, a signed article in People's Daily has said.
This was because the movement to free Tibetans from the cruel and dark rule of feudal serfdom had forever changed human rights situation in Tibet, which should also be hailed worldwide, said the article, published Thursday under the byline Ren Zhongping.
China will mark the first Serfs Emancipation Day on Saturday. Legislature of Tibet Autonomous Region endorsed the setting of the day in January.
The end of the feudal serfdom system in Tibet "is a shiny chapter in the world's history of human rights progress," because since then the freed slaves, accounting for 95 percent of Tibet's population, had been equally treated as human beings, in stead of as "animals which can speak," a term used to describe them under serfdom, Ren Zhongping said in the article.
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This is from Xinhua
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