Report on 30 hour Vigil for Ngawang Sangdrol By Lisa Greenway “……& to all of you who inhabit the world who also believe in the virtues of truth, justice & decency, We appeal to you to come forward in your multitude & let your roar of support Echo along the path of truth & decency. Help to deliver us. Help us to be free, to be independent, to be able to do what we choose - in our own country.” Palden Gyatso ‘Fire Under the Snow’ On Friday night, nearly halfway through the vigil, one of the policemen on duty came over to talk to the vigil members. He was very friendly & sympathetic to our cause (most probably because there were no flowers around to arrest), but could not understand why we would want to spend our Friday night camped out on the street opposite the Chinese Embassy. “Aren’t there other things that you would rather be doing with your Friday night?” he asked. Ngawang Sangdrol has been sentenced to 21 years in a Chinese prison, which is approximately 183,960 hours or 1,092 Friday nights out whooping it up with your mates. The vigil calling for her release lasted for only 30 hours - just 1 Friday night taken out of our lives. This alone should answer his question. As someone once said, & I’m afraid that I am unable to quote the source, “All it needs for evil to triumph is for the good people to do nothing.” It’s always hard to measure what kind of impact such protesting can make, but it will certainly make more of a difference than if we all pretended that such cruelty was not happening & wasted our precious time slouched in front of the TV. The vigil started off quietly on Friday morning, but right from the beginning we had tremendous support from the public & passing motorists. Being situated at the traffic lights worked to our advantage. We were able to target motorists stopped at red lights with leaflets about Ngawang Sangdrol & our 30 hour vigil. Although the majority of people were receptive to our efforts, there were the occasional few that wound up their windows or pretended that we were completely invisible. We were not asking them for anything more than their awareness & support, but it would seem that some people would rather hide away in the safety of their family saloon rather than face the more unpleasant things in life. Despite these few rebuffs, Alex & Malcolm played chicken with the traffic on both days & managed to draw London’s attention to our cause. By 5.30pm, more supporters had finished work & numbers were on the increase. We now had a good number of Tibetans present whose loud shouting always makes a big difference to the verbal assault on the Embassy. Over the course of the day, the number of protesters totalled around 70 with between 15 & 20 people present for most of the time. Whilst in prison, Ngawang Sangdrol & 13 other nuns sang & tape-recorded nationalist songs which resulted in her sentence being increased by another 6 years. The Free Tibet Campaign very kindly gave Paula a copy of the recordings, which we played at various intervals throughout the day. Unfortunately, the sound system was not adequate enough to beat the constant drone of London traffic. However, having risked her life to make these recordings, the least we could do was play them outside the Chinese Embassy - even if they couldn’t hear it. Not only did we make an assault on the ears, but the visual impact was also rather impressive. Banners & pictures were provided by Paula, a beautiful painting from Teresa, red, blue & yellow balloons from Simon & not forgetting the all important Tibetan flags. Towards the end of Friday evening after our pavement curry, chanting was resumed & incurred the wrath of local residents. We agreed with the police that it would be reasonable to stop the noise at 11pm, although at the time we were in high spirits & could have probably gone on all night. The volume for the last hour was turned up a notch to wish the occupants of the Embassy a good night & to assure them that yes, we would still be there in the morning.                   8 of us including 2 Tibetans kept vigil through the night & saw the sun rise to the sound of seagulls over London. As the city slowly came to life, we gradually saw the return of more protestors who very kindly brought breakfast & sun tan cream for the hot day ahead. Saturday saw 28 new supporters & a good number of people turning up for a second onslaught. Over the whole 30 hours the vigil attracted the support of 96 protestors in all, 4 of which remained throughout. After a slow start to the day, the final hours picked up with numbers reaching around 35. Once again the volume was turned up accompanied by supporting ‘beeps’ from motorists & Tibetan flag waving in the middle of the road. The police turned a blind eye. In Tibet it is a crime to wave a flag & shout for independence. Ngawang Sandrols imprisonment is testimony to this. As long as the Chinese remain in Tibet it is important to fly the Tibetan flag outside the Chinese Embassy for those Tibetans who remain in Tibet without a voice & the Tibetans living in exile without a country.   The following is a letter from Dhola, one of the Tibetans who remained with the vigil through the night. Dear Tibet Vigil Members, With sincere appreciation for your unwavering faith & unstinting commitment to the Tibetan cause, I hope this small present might express the overwhelming joy & hope, & that Tibet’s cause will remain alive & that the ray of freedom shall shine on the Roof of the World. Thanks a lot & my solidarity shall always be with you in all the future endeavours. Good luck & keep up with the good work & the truth shall triumph & the cause shall realise its aspirations & aim. With sincere wishes An ardent admirer of your acts Dhola Menlha 17/6/00   "Thanks are due to 'Party Party' of Kentish Town who supplied the balloons at an enormous reduction."