Local News

SF China Consulate Danglers Face Federal Charges

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS 5 / AP / BCN) ― Two anti-China activists are facing federal criminal charges for climbing onto the roof of the Chinese consulate in San Francisco to protest human rights abuses in Tibet. One of them was injured in a fall from a climbing rope.

Nyendak Wangden, 22, of Suisun City, and Brihannala Morgan, 26, of Oakland, appeared in court Thursday to be advised of the charges by U.S. Magistrate Bernard Zimmerman.
 
They are accused of "forcibly thrusting" themselves on a building used as a foreign consulate. Specifically, the law prohibits infringing diplomatic properties "with intent to intimidate, coerce, threaten or harass."

If convicted, the women face a maximum penalty of six months in prison. They were released on $25,000 bonds from Alameda County's
Santa Rita Jail in Dublin.

The pair were ordered to stay away from the consulate and to return to court on Aug. 20 for a status conference.
 
On Wednesday, the two staged a mock hanging off the consulate's roof on Laguna Street. Wangden rappelled a few feet down the side of the building on a climbing rope, wearing a black monk's robe and carrying a sign reading "Stop the Killings in Tibet."

Morgan held the rope and Wangden dangled from it until the rope snapped and she fell to a balcony about 15 feet below. She suffered a fractured wrist and a fractured radius bone and was treated at San Francisco General Hospital.

Morgan has alleged consular personnel cut the rope.

Wangden's attorney, Derek St. Pierre, said Thursday that he believed the climbing rope and an anchor rope used on the roof were cut, with either a knife or scissors.

"I had an opportunity to inspect the climbing rope and the anchor rope," St. Pierre told reporters outside federal court. "It was very obvious that both of them were cut with a sharp object. They were not frayed."

St. Pierre said Morgan told him that four people came to the roof, apparently from the consulate, during the protest, and that she saw one of them, whom she believes was a woman, "making cutting motions near the rope."

The attorney said the other three surrounded Morgan and said she alleges that one of them picked up a metal pipe and began hitting her with it. He said she has substantial bruises.

St. Pierre said Wangden and Morgan "are still surprised that someone would cut a rope and put someone's life in danger like that."

Consulate spokesman Defa Tong said, "I'm not in a position to comment," but indicated that consulate officials "strongly condemn" the intrusion.

"These two ladies broke U.S. law and Chinese law and trespassed on Chinese territory," Tong said. "We hope the United States will punish them according to U.S. law."

Tong said the protest was "not peaceful at all" and that consulate staff members were "very terrified," frightened by the black robes and concerned that something might be hidden beneath the robes.

San Francisco police said the investigation of the incident was turned over to the U.S. State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security. A representative of the bureau was not available for comment Thursday.

Wangden and Morgan are members of the group Students for a Free Tibet, and said they were protesting China's human rights record in Tibet.

Outside of federal court, Wangden's mother, Chime Lhamo, said, "I support my daughter and I am proud of her. She wanted the world to know that the Chinese are illegally occupying Tibet."

Lhamo said she was glad her daughter was not more seriously injured, but added, "Cutting the rope is the same as shooting her. She could have died."

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