On March 10, 2008 on the streets of Lhasa Tibetan monks of the Sera and Drepung monasteries started their peaceful protests. 11 March 2008 – the Chinese authorities used tear gas and two days later military and police forces to pacify those marches. It is said that there were hundreds of killed and wounded. Protests are breaking out in consecutive monasteries and are being pacified by the authorities.(21-MAR-08)
Written by Agnieszka Chmielecka/ HRH Warsaw
Photos: Tibetan sources
On 11 March, the HFHR made an appeal to the President of the Republic of Poland Lech Kaczynski to raise the issue of human rights violations in the People´s Republic of China as well as in Tibet during talks with the President of the People’s Republic of China and the Chairman of the Communist Party of the People´s Republic of China, Hu Jintao. “So far, the People´s Republic of China has not fulfilled its promises, made to the international public opinion while competing for the honor of hosting the Olympic Games. The situation in the realm of human rights has not only failed to improve – but worse still, today the authorities are intensifying repressions 
and, as human rights organizations previously warned, are conducting raids to round-up individuals that could “harm China’s image” by disclosing to foreign journalists the truth about torture, persecution, sale of organs of individuals sentenced to the death penalty, arbitrary verdicts, forced displacement without promised compensation, and so on: according to perfectly documented reports the list is endless.” – writes the Foundation in its letter. The HFHR has also appealed for immediate direct talks with the Dalai Lama in order to elaborate a peaceful, bilaterally beneficial solution to the problem of Tibet.
Marches of Solidarity
On Sunday 16 March 2008, the first protests were held in Warsaw in front of the Chinese 
embassy. On Monday 17 March 2008, the Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China, Sun Rongmin, was summoned to the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and asked to present the situation in Tibet as well as to explain reports about numerous victims among the demonstrators. At the same time, he was presented with a position based on a statement issued the very same day by the European Union, which appealed to both sides to refrain from violence and to the Chinese authorities to establish dialogue and initiate the process of national reconciliation in Tibet. A Silent Protest was held on Thursday 20 March 2008 in Bielsko-Biala. The participants were asked to come dressed in yellow, maroon, red or orange colored clothing and to bring candles. Today at 4 p.m. a similar protest will take place in front of the consulate of the People’s Republic of China in Gdansk and a peaceful assembly is scheduled to begin in Warsaw in front of the Presidential Palace at 6 p.m. During that assembly a Buddhist prayer will be said to honor the memory of victims in Tibet and there will be a reading of appeals and letters of solidarity with Tibetans. The assembly’s main motto will be: POLAND – TIBET – SOLIDARITY.
Common position of the HC and HFHR
On March 20, the Helsinki Committee in Poland, together with the HFHR, published a position, in which it calls upon the authorities of the Republic of Poland to take an unequivocal position regarding Tibet and to take immediate and definite actions in order to appoint the EU Special Coordinator for Tibet. Such a commissioner would be armed with an extensive political mandate that would provide him with an opportunity to take effective actions aimed at putting an immediate end to repressions and establishing direct talks between the Dalai Lama and the highest authorities of the People’s Republic of China.
