Tibetans 'Held after China Rally'

August 3, 2007

Author: Staff Writer

Source: BBC News

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/6929462.stm

A group of Tibetans were arrested in western China after public calls for the return of Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, reports say.

The incident took place on 1 August at a festival in Litang town in western Sichuan, Radio Free Asia and the International Campaign for Tibet said.

Local resident Runggye Adak was arrested after asking festival-goers if they wanted the Dalai Lama back.

People protesting at his arrest were also detained, the reports said.

The crowd had gathered in what is a traditionally Tibetan area to attend horse races.

A witness told Radio Free Asia that Runggye Adak snatched a microphone from a Chinese official.

He called for the Dalai Lama to return and for the Chinese authorities to free the Panchen Lama, the second holiest figure in Tibetan Buddhism, who has been detained by the Chinese authorities since 1995, when he was six years old.