No.0246
Người Lính Mỹ gốc Tây Tạng Hy sinh tại Iraq

Tin từ Thành Phố Arlington, Tiểu bang Virgia, Hoa Kỳ, Người lính trẻ Mỹ gốc Tây Tạng đầu tiên đã tử trận tại Iraq trong cuộc chiến giữa hai quốc gia này. Anh Lính trẻ 19 tuổi Thuỷ Quân Lục Chiến, anh Lance Tenzin Choeku Dengkhim đã bị tử nạn trong khi làm nhiệm vụ chỉ sau khi được điều động đến Iraq ít hơn 1 tháng. Trong buổi lễ truy điệu và tưởng niệm bao gồm nghi thức quân đội và 6 nhà sư Tây Tạng tụng kinh cầu nguyện cho anh Dengkhim.
Theo lời kể của bà mẹ anh Dengkhim :” con trai bà đã an ủi bà đừng lo lắng, mặc dù Iraq không phải là Tây Tạng và có lẽ chẳng dính dáng gì tới đất nước anh ta nhưng theo anh lính trẻ Dengkhim thì anh ta cho rằng hoàn cảnh tại Iraq hoàn toàn tương tự như Quê Hương đất tổ Tây Tạng, Nơi mà dân chúng không có quyền tự do ngôn luận, và nhân quyền.”
Theo lời một người bạn thời thơ ấu của anh Denkhim:” Giấc mơ của người lính trẻ là sẽ học hỏi kinh nghiệm từ quân đội để giúp đất nước và dân tộc Tây Tạng .”
DươngTiêu Tóm Tắt Ý chính

Tibetan-American Buried Among American War Heroes
2005.04.11

ARLINGTON, Virginia—Marine Lance Cpl. Tenzin Choeku Dengkhim has been laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery, the first Tibetan-American to be buried at the site reserved for American war heroes.
Dengkhim, 19, died as a result of "hostile action" April 2, less than one month after deploying to Iraq, the Pentagon said. He is the first Tibetan-American killed while serving in the U.S. military.
Some 100 people, many of them Tibetan-Americans, stood silently under a brilliant April sun as U.S. Marines draped Dengkhim's coffin with a U.S. flag and fired three volleys in salute.
A lone bugler played taps, the Civil War melody that signals "lights out" at U.S. military installations and is traditionally played at all U.S. military funerals.
A half-dozen Tibetan Buddhist monks chanted prayers.

'Mother, don't worry'
"He said he knew everything that was going on in Iraq, the situation in Iraq and in Afghanistan. He also knew that the training would not be easy," his mother, RFA Tibetan service broadcaster Rinzin Choedon Dengkhim, said in her native Tibetan. "But he decided to go anyway."
"When there was talk of his going to Iraq, he said, 'Mother, don’t worry—we are trained for war. Though Iraq is not our country and it may not directly be our war, the situation is quite similar to the situation in Tibet, where people do not have freedom of speech or enjoy human rights.'"
In an interview last week, Dengkhim remembered her son as "a very good boy."
"He was a very good boy, deeply religious, and [he] talked of serving Tibet as a soldier after he completed his military career as U.S. Marine," Dengkhim's mother said last week.
"He was very devoted to his grandmother, who lives in Dharamsala [northern India]. He made sure that his grandmother was present at his Marine graduation ceremony."
"He was very fond of playing badketball every Sunday with other Tibetans," she said.

From India to Utah and Virginia
Dengkhim graduated from George Marshall High School in Fairfax, Virginia, after moving with his mother and brother from Utah, where the family first settled in the 1990s.
Dengkhim, born in India in 1985, enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps on Sept. 14, 2003.
He had been on active duty in Iraq less than a month at the time of his death. He enlisted in hope of saving money for college, according to a family friend.

Idealistic youth
U.S. military officials said Dengkhim appeared to have been killed in hostile action near the city of Hadithah, in Iraq’s Anbar Province.
At a memorial service April 8, friends and relatives remembered Dengkhim as a kind youth who loved swimming and nature.
"Choeku’s dream was to help his country and his people through his experience in the armed forces of the United States," childhood friend Seldon Dekhang said, using Dengkhim’s nickname.
"Some may regard his aspirations as naïve, but Choeku's idealism and drive to pursue his dream despite the obvious dangers was gallant. Despite our sadness, [which] tinges almost every aspect of our day now, we are so proud of him for his bravery," Dekhang said.
State Department Special Coordinator for Tibetan Issues Paula Dobriansky and Rep. Frank Wolf, Republican from Virginia, attended Friday’s memorial service.
Dengkhim is survived by his mother and older brother, Tenzin Fende Dengkhim, of Massachusetts.
Original reporting by RFA's Tibetan service.
Service director: Jigme Ngapo. Produced for the Web in English by Sarah Jackson-Han.
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/social/2005/04/11/tibetan_iraq/