Rallies for Tibet continue

People continue to attend pro-Tibet rallies, like yesterday’s outside Vancouver’s Chinese consulate, because it’s the duty of the free to speak on behalf of the oppressed, protesters said.
More than 100 people crowded in front of China’s consulate at one of dozens of rallies held simultaneously around the world.
Protesters again demanded the Olympic Torch not be carried through Tibet on its relay to Beijing and that foreign media be allowed back into the region.
On March 10, anti-Chinese protests broke out in Lhasa. Tibetan mobs attacked police, Chinese people and looted Chinese-owned businesses. China responded by sending in its armed forces and banning Western reporters from Tibet’s capital. Since then, pro-Tibet rallies have swept the globe.
Tenzin Lhalungpa, president of the Vancouver chapter of the Canada Tibet committee, said he’d never seen so many non-Tibetans embrace the Free-Tibet cause.
“For those of us in exile, it just means taking a half day off work,” he said.
“We’re not facing any recrimination. Look at the police here — they’re actually helping us by blocking off the lanes. (In Tibet) if you were to stand outside and hold a ‘Free Tibet’ sign you’d get brutalized.”
He added that it’s impossible to know what’s really going on in Tibet without the presence of foreign media.
– kristen.thompson@metronews.ca