NEW DELHI // Under the cover of night, an army of police officers today descended on Tibetans protesting against the occupation of their homeland by China, bringing the nine-day stand-off to a decisive end. More than 100 Tibetans supporting six monks, who had abstained from food and water since July 28, had vowed to form a human wall to prevent any police intervention at the protest site in central New Delhi. But the end came quickly. At about 10pm, as many as 500 police officers with two buses and two heavy lorries converged on the site, with orders to remove the activists. The monks locked arms to try to prevent the police breaking through but did not put up a fight. Moments later, all that remained was a mountain of shoes and blankets left behind by monks as they were herded onto the buses - and a couple of dozen shell-shocked Tibetan supporters. "It's very sad," said Konchok Yangphel, a spokesman for the Tibetan Youth Congress, which organised the hunger strike. "We don't have freedom inside Tibet. We were striking through non-violent means, but police treated us like criminals." The six monks were taken out of the tent where they had lain for the past nine days, on stretchers, to waiting ambulances and whisked away to a nearby hospital for forced rehydration, witnesses and police said. The six had vowed to fast until death in order to highlight the plight of their fellow six million Tibetans, many of whom live in exile in northern India after escaping their homeland following a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959. The strike came ahead of the start of the Beijing Olympics on Aug 8, which the Tibetans have protested against because of China's human rights record and the military reaction to an uprising in Tibet in March this year. The wages of hunger had taken a toll on their bodies, with each having lost an average 11kg, unable to rise from their beds and registering perilously low blood pressure. The Tibetan Youth Congress is known for spearheading high-profile rallies such as last year's storming of the Chinese Embassy in New Delhi. But this was the first time Tibetan demonstrators had declined water as well as food. Without medical intervention, they were not expected to live beyond this week. A doctor who examined the monks earlier this week said three were in critical condition and needed urgent medical attention. Today, he added another two to the list and insisted they be taken to hospital. "Their health was deteriorating so we took them to hospital," said BK Singh, the deputy superintendent of New Delhi district police, who oversaw the operation. Mr Singh said the six would be charged with "attempting to commit suicide". "You have no liberty to die," he said. Mr Singh said the 130 protesters who had formed the human chain put up "a little bit of resistance". He said they had been taken into protective custody, not arrested. The Tibetan Youth Congress had vowed that for every striker that dies, another would take his place. "Tomorrow, we will start our second batch," Mr Yangphel said.
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