Dharamshala (Himachal Pradesh) [India], August 2 (ANI): More than 1,000 Tibetans in exile, including parliamentarians and senior officials of the Tibetan government-in-exile, held a candlelight march in Dharamshala on Sunday to mark one month since Lobga Rangzen self-immolated in front of the United Nations Headquarters in New York, calling for a 'Free and Independent Tibet.'

The march began from McLeod Ganj and concluded at Bhagsunag, with participants paying tribute to Rangzen and reiterating their demands for freedom, justice and independence for Tibet.

Speaking to ANI, Karma Yeshi, chairman of the Public Service Commission of the Tibetan government-in-exile, said the candlelight vigil was organised to honour Rangzen and mark one month since his self-immolation. He said the participants wanted to show solidarity with him and urge the United Nations to take up and resolve the Tibet issue.

'We are holding this candlelight march for our freedom fighter, Martyr Lobga Rangzen, who self-immolated in front of the United Nations Headquarters in New York on 2 July, and it marks one month of his supreme sacrifice today. So that is why we are holding this candlelight vigil to show our solidarity with him and to ask the United Nations to look into the matter of Tibet and to resolve the Tibet issue as soon as possible,' Yeshi said.

Speaking to ANI, Wangdue Dorjee, a member of the Tibetan parliament-in-exile, said the gathering was intended to pay tribute to Rangzen and that the candles represented the 'light of truth'. He said Tibetans continued to stand by the demands for which those they consider martyrs had sacrificed their lives.

'We are here to pay tribute to him for his supreme sacrifice. We believe that we are holding these candles as the light of truth and we have the same demands for which our brave martyrs have sacrificed their lives,' Dorjee told ANI.

Speaking to ANI, former Tibetan parliamentarian Namgyal Dolkar said the vigil was also meant to keep Rangzen's final wishes and message alive. She said his self-immolation was a call for complete independence for Tibet and for Tibetans to unite.

'We have gathered here to mark the one-month remembrance of martyr Lobga Rangzen. We are here, not just to remind the world, but to remind ourselves about his last wishes and his last request to the world and to the Tibetan people, so we are exactly doing the same thing. The sacrifice of life, deciding to burn yourself to death, calling for complete independence of Tibet, requesting all Tibetans to get united because during all these years we have been requesting the Chinese government to have dialogue with us, and there has been no response from them... I think it's high time that we should reverse our policy and we should ask for complete independence now because things are going worse...' Dolkar said. (ANI)