Gangtok:In a surprise this week,It has been reported that Jean Lassalle - french member of parliament and president of World Mountain People Association, have written a letter of support and solidarity to the hunger strikers Dawa Lepcha & Tenzing Lepcha of ACT. While expressing his deep concern for their health, he requested them to end the fast, and assured them that he will raise the cause of the ACT-led hunger strike to the Government of India as well as Government of Sikkim.It also informed that more awareness on Sikkim protests would be made in french media to garner more support to their cause.
Jean Lassalle made the following comments to the hunger strikers:
As the President of The World Mountain People Association, I wish to express personally and in the name of WMPA my deepest sympathy to your cause and your fight, and also my worries for your health and life.I, like you, am an inhabitant of mountains and had equally, last year, to go on an indefinite hunger strike to defend the future of the inhabitants of the constituency I have the honour to represent in the French Parliament. I had to strike, in the middle of French parliament, 39 days before my plea was heard, but, finally, I could convey my message of struggle and hope and obtain the necessary measures to solve the problem. Still, the fight is on because Mountains are under constant threat from those who want to take advantage of their resources without any respect for their past, their present and their future. Those who will make any promise to achieve their goal but will keep none when time comes.
We do urge all concerned to do what ever they have to do to keep you alive. And the first of these people concerned are the decision makers who have to stop using fallacious excuses in order to refuse to dialogue with you and have to, at long last, start transparent, honest decision making processes respecting the laws, the dignity of the Mountain People and the integrity of their territories.
The Indefinite Hunger Strike at BL Bhawan, Gangtok, is part of the The Affected Citizens of Teesta-led People's Movement, pressing demands for scrapping hydel projects in Dzongu & regarding the environment impact of hydel situation.
For more information, visit:http://www.actsikkim.com
