March 5th, Monday, marked the first day of “Countdown to March 10th”, a weeklong protest in front of the Chinese Consulate in San Francisco.
“China must learn from history,” shouted one of the slogan-leader with a bullhorn, and within no time all the protesters followed him loudly. It was instantaneously backed-up by “China – don’t do to others what you suffered,” reminding China of the so-called “A hundred years of humiliation” under foreign occupation. Soon the rhythm built up and a dozen or more Tibetans shouted “Tibet Belongs to Tibetan”, “Tibet will be Free”, “We Will Never give up”.
The weeklong protest leading up to March 10th is to take place every day between 1pm–3pm in front of the Consulate. 1pm – 3pm is in fact the official timing of the Consulate to serve the visa applicants. As the crowd of visa seekers, lined up in a row just two meters away, curiously watched on, there were certainly signs of more people paying closer attention, some even poking their noses closer to the transparent doors just to read the statements on our placards. The embassy officials had surely called for security as in no time federal agents whose assignment is to protect foreign establishments in the U.S. showed up, but they led us on without a single question.
Dawa Dorjee, the president of San Francisco Regional Tibetan Youth Congress remarked the following on the importance of the weeklong protest, “As we move on to the 48th March 10th Commemoration, scheduled for Saturday, we are also aware of using time judiciously and protesting effectively. We will open the eyes of the world to the Chinese government’s brutalities over our people, the most recent being the Sept. 30th, 2006 Nangpa la pass shooting, as well as the renewed Chinese government’s strategy of “fight to the death” with the Dalai Lama. Each day of the protest is a build up to that level of effect and we will not restrain until the momentum is built.”
Members of the Tibetan community along with American and Asian supporters in the Bay Area will be protesting at the Consulate everyday from 1 pm- 3 pm, including an expected turn out of couple hundreds of protest on March 10th itself.
The entire local Tibet support group which formed the core Planning Group for March 10th in the Bay Area include San Francisco Regional Tibetan Youth Congress, SFT chapters in Stanford, USF and Davis, Bay Area Friends of Tibet, Committee 100 for Tibet and Tibetan Association of Northern California and Tibet Justice Center.
For the latest updates on SF Bay Area local action, please visit our customized website for the 48th March 10th: www.freetibetmarch.org.
