Get on the Bus III - The Best ‘Bus’ Yet

Get on the Bus participants gather for a group picture outside the Chinese consulate.

The phrase ‘Marathon Monday’ usually refers to the Monday of the Boston Marathon. However, on April 20, thirty-six Boston area human rights activists ran a different marathon when they traveled to New York City to stage protests at the Chinese Consulate, the United States Mission to the United Nations, and the Nigerian Consulate in a trip titled "Get on the Bus III."

Organized by Amnesty International Group 133 of Somerville, Massachusetts, Group 133 members were joined by AI members from Boston University and Brockton High School, as well as representatives from the Democracy for China Fund and the Tibetan Association of Boston. Two of the protests related to Group 133’s action files. The protest at the Chinese Consulate focused on Gyaltsen Drolkar, a Tibetan nun who, along with thirteen other nuns, is imprisoned in Lhasa’s Drapchi prison for taking part in a 1990 demonstration and recording pro-independence songs in prison. The demonstration at the US Mission to the United Nations focused on the forced resettlement of refugees within Burundi and the August 1994 extra-judicial killing of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees officer José Lopez Herrera.

AI Group 133 Member Carl Williams talks to the press.

The various protests received a notable amount of press attention, including ABC News, AP, and radio stations WNBC and WBLS-FM. Between demonstrations, some participants met with Florence Martin from the AI United Nations office. Curt Goering, Senior Deputy Executive Director of AIUSA, spoke with a small group at the AIUSA office about fact-finding missions. On the trip back to Boston, participants were upbeat. Trip coordinator Kathleen Gillespie thought the day’s success was due to the efforts of many people. "It’s a great group," Gillespie said of Group 133, adding that when something needed to be done, "people just took care of it." This was the group’s third trip to New York, and with three successful demonstrations in one day, their most ambitious to date. Plans are already underway for a fourth trip in April 1999.

- by Ted Leach

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