KEY POINTS:
Members of the Tibetan community will be in mourning outside Auckland's Chinese Consulate tonight.
The event is designed to draw public attention to a Queen St protest on Monday, scheduled to coincide with a series of demonstrations internationally against China's crackdown on Tibetan independence protesters.
Participants in this evening's protest have been asked to wear black and white - Chinese mourning colours - to remember those who have lost their lives in the unrest, and to send a message to the Chinese Communist authorities that the taking of human lives cannot be tolerated, the organisers say.
The violence between Tibetan rioters and China's security forces, which broke out on March 10 in Tibet's capital Lhasa, has left between 19 and 140 people dead.
"This gathering has nothing to do with the free trade agreement, but everything to do with human rights - or rather, China's lack of it," said community spokesman Thuten Kesang.
"We remember the dead, but we are even more worried for those alive - those who had been arrested for staging demonstrations on the 49th anniversary of a failed uprising against Chinese rule."
Mr Kesang said the protests were not against the Chinese, but against the atrocities committed by China's Communist authorities.
He said Tibetans had felt like second-class citizens in their own home since Chinese soldiers entered Tibet in 1950.
"Tibetans are being sidelined in every aspect of life, from governance to the running of businesses."
Visiting Tibetan monk Gen Lama Thupten Phunstok, a close aide of the Dalai Lama, said the demonstrations in Lhasa were a "desperate cry for help" by the Tibetan people, but few countries would dare to hear.
Although Tibetans had won international moral support, most nations were more concerned about not upsetting China, which is seen as a growing economic superpower, he said.
Junelle Groves, a Pakeha New Zealander who is active in Tibetan circles here, is one of many non-Tibetans planning to be at tonight's gathering.
"Having Tibetan friends who have had their brothers and sisters arrested or killed, I feel it would be irresponsible not to be supporting their cause," she said.
China has accused the Dalai Lama of masterminding the demonstrations and the anti-Chinese riots in mid-March.
This week China's state news agency Xinhua reported Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang citing statements of support for Beijing from foreign governments, saying: "It is clear proof that the international community is on the side of China."
He also said China opposed "any encouragement and support for the secessionist schemes of the Dalai clique".
Meanwhile, Auckland's mainland Chinese community are planning their own protest next week against New Zealand's mainstream media - which they say have been biased in their Tibet reporting, deliberately portraying China in a negative light.
