NEW DELHI // Placing his hand on the young man's sunken chest, the doctor peered into Tenpa Dhargay's vacant eyes and made the obvious diagnosis. The man needs a hospital - not a dreary, mosquito-ridden tent on a New Delhi roadside. But when the Tibetan Youth Congress announced a hunger strike to protest against China's Olympic Games, they promised a "strike unto death". And yesterday, the eighth day without food and water for six Tibetan monks, it was clear they meant it.
Word soon spread among the monks waiting outside that police planned to drag the six hunger strikers to a hospital. The monks' chants grew more muscular. They rose to their feet, locking arms and encircling the tent. No one was going anywhere. The Tibetan Youth Congress, known for spearheading high-profile rallies such as last year's storming of the Chinese Embassy in New Delhi, has unleashed its latest salvo at Beijing: a slow and very public death.
"All our campaigns have been non-violent so far," said Tsewang Rigzin, the president of the Tibetan Youth Congress. "That's what we're doing now." But this is the first time Tibetan demonstrators are declining water as well as food. Without medical intervention, they are unlikely to live beyond this week. The Tibetan Youth Congress vows that for every striker that dies, another will take his place. The six demonstrators, said Konchok Yagphel, who speaks for the group, represent the six million Tibetans in the world still struggling for an independent homeland.
And they do not intend to let any police officer come between them and that goal. "That's why the monks are there," Mr Yagphel said. "If police try to take [the hunger strikers], they will resist ? non-violently." For Beijing, it represents more bad news on the road to hosting the Olympic Games. The day began with word that unnamed militants had ambushed a police station in China's troubled north-west, killing 16 officers. The incident had officials scrambling to assure the world community that athletes will be safe during the Games, which officially gets under way on Friday.
Yesterday's scene in New Delhi is unlikely to carry much weight with Beijing, which does not formally recognise the Tibetan Youth Congress. Several prominent Indian politicians, on the other hand, have visited the scene, many expressing concern about the demonstrators' health. Starving oneself in public to make a point is not new in India. No less a figure than Mohandas Gandhi went on several such strikes in his lifetime, protesting against India's occupation by the British.
Bhagat Singh, another revolutionary, would use the same method in 1929 while advocating for prisoners' rights during his incarceration. Mr Singh's 63-day fast, during which he took only liquids, ended when the British improved prison conditions. However, a total hunger strike, barring both food and liquids, takes the most dramatic toll on a body. Less than one week ago, Tenpa Dhargay was in his prime, often a vigorous supporter of Tibetan independence. In March, the Tibetan monk, who is 23, was strong enough to walk hundreds of kilometres for a protest march from Dharamsala to New Delhi.
The man Sunir Mittal visited yesterday, about 11kg lighter, looked near death. After examining Mr Dhargay and the five other equally ashen demonstrators, the doctor huddled briefly with Tibetan leaders. "They want 15 minutes to think about it," he said at last. "I'm willing to wait." Eventually, Dr Mittal departed yesterday's scene with a shrug: "What can you do?" he said. "It is their wish." Yesterday, at least, the hunger strikers were allowed to remain in their cots, unable to move on their own.
"Until death," Mr Yagphel vowed. Seema Mustafa, a New Delhi-based political commentator and magazine editor, doubts the strike will make it that far. "I think [police] will stop it before that," she said. "Before they really collapse, they are force-fed." The fact that the Tibetan Youth Congress is unleashing an absolute hunger strike is not only a sign that the organisation is ratcheting up its efforts to snare the world's attention before the Olympics - but also an indication of growing desperation.
"I think it's really sad when any section of society, which has been agitating for a just cause for a really long time, has to go to this level," Ms Mustafa said. "I think it is forced to by the state because the state knows you can go to that point and no more. If you hold fast, you really don't have much to protest with." Then again, there are few bargaining chips more potent than death. If demonstrators do end up giving their lives for their cause, Ms Mustafa said the world would have little choice but to pay attention.
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