Protest in Paris over killing of Tibetan national by Chinese men

Paris [France], July 18 : Following the killing of a Tibetan National by three men from the Chinese community on July 11 in Normandy, representatives of the Tibetan community gathered in France on July 17, Sunday to perform a white march and pay a tribute to the deceased.
The Tibetan national, named Tsultrim Nomjour Tsang, 32 received a fatal stab wound to the side in front of the restaurant Les Delices d'Asie, which had been employing him for a week in Saint-Leonoard, near Fecamp, local media reported, adding that the attackers were the two managers of the establishment and an employee who were indicted for intentional homicide and imprisoned, within the framework of the investigation opened by the prosecutor of Le Havre, reported DecodeTheNewspodcast.
Tibetans from all over Europe - Belgium, Switzerland, and Spain assembled in Paris on Sunday, July 17 with bouquets of flowers, for a white march of unprecedented magnitude. According to internal intelligence, they were around 7,000, perhaps 10,000 according to representatives of the Tibetan community in France.
"We had never experienced anything like it, it's really a shock," said the representative of the Dalai Lama in Europe, Monde Rigzin Genkhang.
Hundreds of Tibetans, who had made the trip from Paris, Rennes, Nantes, Marseille, or Toulouse, visited the scene on July 14, Thursday to pay the first tribute but when they learned that the body of their compatriot had been placed in a plastic bag near the garbage room by the attackers and discovered traces of blood present on the ground, the protestors started to ransack the restaurant, DecodeTheNewspodcast reported.
According to his widow, like many Tibetans, Tsultrim also fled the country and arrived in France in 2019.
Tibet is an "autonomous region" for China, a cut-off by Beijing, which is eradicating its culture and language by imposing Chinese policies.
The murder of Saint-Leonard deeply shook the community as they mentioned "one event too many", in an increasingly tense political context which sees Beijing increasing its pressure on its diaspora.
"We fled Tibet for political reasons, to join a free country here" testified Tsering, 32 years old, met during the white march. "Having the Chinese do this is a direct blow to our hearts. We are coming together to make sure this doesn't happen again.
"The problem of young people arriving in France is that they don't speak our language and often have the only solution to work in Chinese restaurants where they are not always well treated" explains Celine Menguy, press officer for the Tibet office in Paris.
In another statement, Ugen-Tenzing Nubpa, a Tibetan representative for Switzerland, said that the case goes beyond a simple news item.
"That the Chinese kill Tibetans in Tibet, occupied territory, it is common. In France, in Europe, this is a first. It is difficult to say whether this is a racist act. But we have been asking for justice for Tibet for sixty years, and now there is a form of urgency, we have taken a step. We are a nonviolent people and we demand justice," he said.
The six community associations which organized the demonstration on Sunday (another is planned for Fecamp on Monday, July 18) wish to prevent the situation from escalating, said Nancy Palmer of DecodeTheNewspodcast.
"The barbarous killing has inculcated a sense of fear among those who work in Chinese restaurants as they are concerned and no longer feel safe," emphasized Thupten Gyatso, deputy of the Tibetan parliament in exile.
In Paris, dozens of them have decided not to go to work for a month, he said.
"There are disputes between employees and employers. But we have always encouraged Tibetans to defend themselves within the framework of labour law," he added.