Chinese Crackdown on Tibet Protested

Activists in D.C. Urge Bush to Boycott Opening of Olympics

Wrapped in multihued Tibetan national flags, more than 1,500 Tibetan refugees from as far as Georgia and Massachusetts rallied yesterday in front of the White House to protest China's recent crackdown on dissent in their homeland and demand that President Bush boycott opening ceremonies at the Summer Olympics in Beijing.

The demonstrators, who included a group of Buddhist monks and a handful of American supporters, said the combination of widening protests over Tibet and China's upcoming debut as an Olympic host in August have created a unique opportunity to press for greater Tibetan rights and autonomy after a half-century under Chinese control.

"The United States says it has been fighting for human rights and democracy in Iraq and Afghanistan," said Phurbu Dorjee, a Tibetan activist from Brooklyn, N.Y. "Tibetans are suffering. If the U.S. doesn't speak out this time, the issue of Tibet will die, and history will judge America as a hypocrite."

Protest leaders at the orderly White House rally warned against violence. But a brief disturbance broke out later when demonstrators marched to the Chinese Embassy. A thrown object struck a uniformed Secret Service officer and windows at the embassy were broken, a Secret Service spokesman said. Two protesters were arrested, he said.

Demonstration leaders said a few marchers spotted embassy employees photographing them, became upset and threw water bottles.

"This was very unfortunate, and we very much regret it," said a spokesman for the demonstrators. "We underestimated how emotional Tibetans are feeling."

At the gathering in Lafayette Square, Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich (D-Ohio) compared the Tibetan struggle to the U.S. civil rights movement, calling it a "moral force that can change the world."

A senior aide to the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan Buddhist leader and Nobel Peace laureate, cautioned the crowd in the square, "We must never allow our movement to become violent."

The aide, Lodi Gyaltsen Gyari stressed that sympathy for Tibetans, growing worldwide after three weeks of protests in Tibet and nearby parts of China, could be lost by rejection of the Dalai Lama's philosophy of peaceful resistance and dialogue with Beijing. "Please do not depart from that path," he said.

In an interview later, Gyari said he wanted to give the Bush administration's policy of quiet diplomacy a chance. "But I am skeptical, because I know that silent diplomacy does not work with the Chinese," he said.

At the White House, the Tibetans were fervent but orderly, shouting, "China is a killer, shame on killers. . . . China is a monster, shame on monsters." They chanted against the Olympics and plans to carry the Olympic torch across Tibet.

The demonstrators sang a Tibetan resistance anthem from 1959, the year of a failed uprising against Chinese control. They stamped their feet when it urged defiance.

The crowd included many women and children, some in traditional Tibetan dress. Many said they had come by bus from East Coast cities.

"Tibet is my country, and they are killing our brothers and sisters," said Tsering Chodon, 34, a hair stylist from Charlottesville.

After the rally, protesters followed monks up Connecticut Avenue toward the Chinese Embassy.

Staff writers Elissa Silverman and Martin Weil contributed to this report.