For the first time, I fully understood what it means when they talk about the plurality of civil society. It was difficult to, along with the coalition of 12 Thai and international NGOs, come up with a statement of demands. I am proud of my Free Tibet Network team for working hard to make the entire thing bigger and better than we could have imagined, especially in the face of threats from Bangkok Metropolitan Police about arrests, threatening phone calls from Chinese embassy officials and of course the antagonism from pro-Beijing supporters on the day of the rally itself.
10 Tibetan people living in exile in Taiwan flew to Bangkok for the torch relay specifically to attend the protest. On the day of the demonstration, we had to split them up into groups between myself and 3 of my friends. The taxi ride on the way over to the UNESCAP building (outside of which the demo was to take place) was an anxious ride as roads had been blocked and police were everywhere. We had to stop 3 blocks away and walk to the UN as individuals on opposite sides of the street, hoping no one would search our bags and find our Tibetan flags, posters, press statements, passports of questionable nationality and pepper spray. Once we got to the UN, it was smooth sailing. Around 250-300 people showed up, a good number for a city like Bangkok. There were Thai activists there from every generation, showing that human rights is fundamental and universal, no matter what one's "cause" is. There were tourists there too, and many many people who had spent time in Dharamsala and had met with the Dalai Lama and were angered by the Chinese spin on the term "Dalai Clique".
Eventually, the pro-Beijing supporters showed up with their uniforms and their state-sponsored placards so obviously supplied by the Chinese embassy. There was a confrontation, 250 pro-Tibet activists and 150 pro-Beijing sheep shouting at each other. The other organisers and I had to make a "human chain" dividing the two sides so that no one would throw any punches. However, the human chain itself was pushed and tussled with and eventually the police decided to do their job and led the pro-Beijingers to the other side of the street. The barricades went up, steel fences and a road divided us and our ideology.
Soon after, an additional 150 pro-Beijing demonstrators showed up, by the end of the day I would estimate that their group was larger than ours. I would like to state here as an eyewitness to all of it that I was surprised and upset with the arrogance and aggression of the pro-Being group. They were all young: students rounded up by the embassy and told to demonstrate and make their country proud. I believe that civil society organises itself, and I view state-sponsored demonstrations as illegitimate.
About 5 minutes before the torch was due to arrive, a group of Chinese activists broke their barricade and ran up and down the street shouting racial slurs against Tibetans. It is important to note that pro-Tibet demonstrators had maintained simple human rights-centered slogans and had to work extra hard with the media to refute that we are anti-Chinese. At no point were Chinese people attacked either in words or physically. So the anti-Tibetan racial slurs upset us all, but mostly they upset our friend Tashi who was standing next to me. He tried to climb the barricade and it took 4 people to restrain him. He was shouting and crying at the same time and on his face was an expression of the deepest pain and hurt I have ever seen in my life. I knew that if he managed to jump that barricade then all his Tibetan friends would follow. And if they followed, then the Thai activists would follow. And in that moment of intensity and looking at Tashi face, I was dying to claw out the eyeballs of the guy that upset him, I was ready to jump in there if he jumped in there. Unfortunately, he was successfully restrained.
The torch passed and there was much frenzy, the energy level escalated to something I have never before witnessed at any other demonstration I have been to. The pro-Beijing supporters got too rowdy, the riot police closed in on us though I wasn't sure if it was to protect us or to contain us until I heard the lieutenant over the loudspeaker saying that the other side only had Chinese people while the pro-Tibet side had Thais, so the police must protect the Thais. The pro-Beijingers were told to disperse and leave, but of course many of them came over on to our side and tried to instigate more fights.
At the end of the rally, I noticed all the Tibetans were sitting on the sidewalk with Tashi, quiet and subdued which was a stark contrast from how they had been earlier. I saw that they were all crying. Worried about what might have happened, I went over to see if everything was all right. "We've been waiting for this moment for years" they said. "I can taste the blood at the back of my throat, my blood is boiling." I realised at that moment, that in the battle between Western and Chinese media, it has been the victims that lose out. There remains no justice, no remedy or reparation. At the end of the day, we protest because we oppose the treatment of people living within China and Chinese Occupied Tibet at the hands of the government of China.
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