More than 20 unidentified people broke into the venue of the Hong Kong Tibet Film Festival on its opening day yesterday, accusing the Dalai Lama of encouraging Tibetans to self-immolate and engaging in physical clashes with staff and guests.
“The Hong Kong Tibet Film Festival was inaugurated at around 9:30am, but during the inauguration, more than 20 people — who looked like gangsters — rushed into the venue, shouting, accusing the Dalai Lama of being a separatist, questioning why we wouldn’t listen to Beijing and stay part of China, while also holding banners accusing His Holiness of encouraging Tibetan self-immolations,” Taiwan Tibetan Welfare Association president Tashi Tsering told the Taipei Times.
Tashi said he then started to argue with them, asking them not to interrupt the event or bother people attending the event.
“I also told them that they misunderstood the Dalai Lama, who insists on the middle-way approach, and said that I could explain his ideas to them if they would listen,” he said.
However, Tashi said they did not want to listen; instead, they tried to attack him and slapped a Hong Kong organizer in the face when he tried to stop them.
“We called the police, but the mob left before the police arrived, and we continued the event as planned,” Tashi said. “I think those people were sent by the Chinese government.”
He added that, during the recent student strike and pro-democracy demonstrations in Hong Kong, many of the protesters had said that today’s Tibet, after what had happened there since the Chinese invasion and occupation in the 1950s, could be tomorrow’s Hong Kong if the nation’s citizens do not resist.
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