Published by: World Tibet Network News, Tuesday, Mar 12, 1996

Charles Burress, Chronicle Staff Writer

The San Francisco Chronicle Saturday, March 9, 1996 Page A11

The flickering but persistent flame of resistance to China's occupation of Tibet will flare in Berkeley tomorrow when the city apparently will be the only town in America to fly Tibet's flag.

Berkeley will join Rome and hundreds of other European cities flying the Tibetan flag to mark Tibet's National Uprising Day, the annual March 10 commemoration of the failed 1959 opposition to the Chinese takeover.

The flag displays tomorrow are part of a full day of nonviolent protests worldwide.

In San Francisco, demonstrators will march at noon from Fifth and Market streets to the Chinese consulate. Washington, D.C., is expected to host the largest pro-Tibet march in U.S. history, according to organizers.

Berkeley's decision to raise the flag follows a European-born "Flag for Tibet" call to local governments.

"We wanted to show our support for Tibet and Tibetan freedom," said Berkeley City Council member Carla Woodworth, sponsor of the council-adopted measure to raise the flag. She said she acted after being approached by several of the Bay Area's large numbers of Tibet supporters.

The 9 a.m. ceremony at Martin Luther King Jr. Park behind City Hall will include the Tibetan National Anthem and will be attended by representatives of Tibetan support groups and by Tibetans in traditional dress known as chuba.

The international event represents a redoubled effort by the Tibetan movement to counter increased Chinese persecution and attempts to erase Tibetan culture, said Eva Herzer, president of the Berkeley-based International Committee of Lawyers for Tibet.

"Since 1959, an estimated 1.2 million Tibetans have been killed as the direct result of the occupation," Herzer said. "With the rapidly accelerating population transfers (of Chinese into Tibet) and China's forced birth control, you can't help but conclude that cultural genocide is in progress." The Tibetan government in exile in India estimates that the Chinese already outnumber Tibetans in Tibet, by 5.5 million to 4.6 million, Herzer said.

Chinese authorities historically have claimed that they liberated Tibet from an oppressive feudal system, and they refer to the government in exile, led by the Dalai Lama, as "splitists" who "pursue evil activities to split the nation and destroy the unity of the people," in the recent words of Laba Pingcuo, vice chairman of the China-controlled government of Tibet. That assessment, however, is not widely shared outside of China, particularly in the Bay Area, an important player in the international pro-Tibet network.

At least 310 cities in Europe will fly Tibet's flag tomorrow. and Berkeley apparently is the only U.S. city to join in, said Herzer and other members of Tibet support groups. "It's a gesture of solidarity that's much needed," Herzer said. "From what I know, no other (American) city will fly the flag."

The flag draws attention to Tibet's plight, Herzer said, but it cannot substitute for coordinated strategy, no easy task when the Tibet movement is divided among the Tibetan government in exile, various Tibetan communities in several countries and the numerous Tibetan support groups, including a dozen in the Bay Area alone. "The Tibetan movement is extremely diversified," said Herzer, who is in Washington this weekend for a strategy summit, the Third Tibet Conference of the Americas, preparatory to an international conference to be held in Bonn in June.