More than 2,500 protest at China's Consulate in New York City
March 16th, 2008
NEW YORK CITY--More than 2,600 Tibetans braved a cold and wet Sunday morning
to gather on mass in front of the Chinese Consulate in New York City in
what is proving to be an ongoing protest, according to police. The outgrowth
of world-wide condemnation of the recent military crackdown on peaceful
protests that are spreading throughout Tibet, the gathering marks the
fourth consecutive day of solidarity acts by Tibetans in the Tri-state
area. New York City police officers, equipped with scores of plastic handcuffs,
stood guard along the perimeter of the consulate as the crowd of angry,
emotional, powerfully charged, yet peaceful protesters were partitioned
across the street behind police barricades. Other police in plain clothes
were seen on rooftops, and roughly twenty officers were on horseback standing
guard in front of the consulate and occasionally approached the crowd
as it grew in size.
Tibetans and non-Tibetan supporters started gathering around 9:00am (EST), and the crowd kept growing exponentially throughout the day. Both young and old proudly waved the Tibetan national flag, held banners and signs with calls such as “Stop the Killings in Tibet”, “70 Killed THIS Morning in Tibet”, and “Let the Media into Tibet”, while screaming for a “Free Tibet”, and an end of the violent repressive acts of the Chinese military. Many of the Tibetans, both young and old, sported white shirts with the Olympic rings encircling human skulls and a slogan calling for a boycott of the Beijing games. The screaming and chanting for a “Free Tibet!” was at times deafening, and at others extremely somber after protesters broke down into fits of tears over the current brutal response by Chinese authorities inside Tibet.
Recent statements by the Chinese government provided a deadline of Monday morning for all Tibetans who had participated in the protests within Tibet to surrender. Those who chose not to do so would receive harsher penalties for their actions. The spread of protests throughout Tibet has been mirrored with similar protests and vigils in front of embassies and consulates in major cities throughout the world. Reports from within the Tibetan capital city of Lhasa, are stating martial law has been put into effect. News of a fresh wave of marchers replacing those arrested by the Indian government for attempting to march from Dharamsala, India back to the Indian-Tibetan border empowered the diverse crowd, which plans on maintaining a presence outside the consulate and marching across midtown Manhattan to the United Nations on Monday the 17th.