Tibetans hold India rally, ask U.N. investigate China

SILIGURI, India (Reuters) - More than 2,000 Tibetans gathered from all over northeastern India on Tuesday for their biggest rally in the area in years, demanding the United Nations investigate reports of killings of protesters in China.

Led by hundreds of shaven-headed Buddhist monks in maroon robes, some as young as eight, they waved Tibetan flags and marched through the streets of Siliguri, chanting "We want justice, we want freedom".

"The U.N. is watching what is happening in Tibet but it is doing nothing," said Dawa Gyalpo, who runs a library of Tibetan culture in the India village of Salugara and helped organize the protest.

"We are asking the U.N. that there must be an investigation."

Women in traditional Tibetan dress and young men with "Free Tibet" bandanas and Tibetan flags painted on their faces carried banners demanding China free protesters inside Tibet, stop the "genocide" of their people and grant them independence.

Tibetans had gathered at the Kala Chakra monastery on the outskirts of Siliguri, coming from refugee communities in the Indian states of Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya and Nagaland as well as all around West Bengal, organizers said.

(Reporting by Simon Denyer; Editing by Alistair Scrutton and Jerry Norton)