The vibration from the cell phone on the wooden desk reverberated throughout the silent library. It only buzzed for a second before the call was answered. “We have 133 confirmed deaths,” the anxious student relayed. “Eye witness accounts are much higher, but the figure we have confirmed is 133.”

The student was speaking to one of many sources she has inside of Tibet in her native tounge. She refused to give her real name; Sarah is the name attributed to her quotes, because she does not want her friends in Tibet to be arrested, or worse. “Two of my friends have already gone missing,” Sarah reveals.

With recent rioting in Tibet and worldwide protesting by Tibetans to gain autonomy from China, a number of Tibetan and pro-Tibet students at the University at Buffalo are doing their part to raise awareness through demonstrations and information pamphlets. A week ago, members of the Tibetan Graduate Student Association (TGSA) at UB performed silent protests at various high-traffic locations on North Campus. “Our effort is to educate our classmates and friends,” said Kunchok Youdon, president of the TGSA. The students gathered in semi-circles with tape covering their mouths, clutching signs that read, “Who will speak for us?”

Tables were set up in the Student Union that allowed concerned students the opportunity to write letters to their congressmen, the Chinese Ambassador to the United States and the International Olympic Committee. “We’ve gotten a good response from the students,” said Youdon. “People want to know more.”

The people of Tibet have been struggling for freedom from what they call the “Chinese Occupation” for decades. Every year on March 10, Tibetans across the globe stage protests in commemoration of the failed uprising that forced the Dalai Lama into exile in 1959. This year, as the annual protests were carried out in the Tibetan capital city of Lhasa, violence and rioting erupted that possibly left hundreds dead and thousands arrested.

Last week, Sarah explained how the usually peaceful protests by Tibetan monks turned into violent rioting in Lhasa. During the protests, some of the monks were attacked by Chinese police officers. “When physical attacks on the monks began, people started getting pissed off.” She asserts that the people of Tibet have a great respect for the Buddhist monks, who often stage peaceful protests for autonomy from China. “That’s why people started rioting, and burning down Chinese stores.”

Claude Welch, political science professor at UB, explains that other major protests have been handled in similar fashion by the Chinese government. “It was a response China has used before when faced with large scale protests,” said Welch.

The violence that erupted in Tibet drew the attention of the major media outlets, and conflicting reports started streaming in. “Many of the Chinese students are very angry with the way the western media has been handling this,” said Ying Zhang, president of the Chinese Students and Scholars Association. While showing YouTube videos of Tibetans attacking Han Chinese civilians in Lhasa, he describes his frustrations. “These are not peaceful protests,” said Zhang. “It’s okay to protest without violence. No government will allow you to act violently.”

Tenzin Choekyi, a graduate student at UB, has been actively involved in the Tibetan freedom movement for a long time. “This has been the [largest] worldwide protest ever made by Tibetans,” she said. “So far, this has been the most traumatic, I should say, the most violent.”

Choekyi and Youdon were both born in India. Youdon worked for the Tibetan government in exile in India, and has been actively involved in the struggle to free Tibet. “I have never seen my homeland,” she sadly states. Youdon explains that she has relatives in Tibet, and that she has spoken with them and they are safe. Choekyi has been in contact with her cousin living in Tibet through Yahoo Messenger, one of the only ways people can communicate with the outside world when living in Tibet.

Both girls agree the media attention that the protests have been attracting is a good thing, but they are disappointed by how far things have to go in order to spark interest. “It’s so sad. You have to be violent to get the attention,” said Youdon. “They want to see people dead in pools of blood.”

While violence permeates many of the protests in China, the Tibetan freedom movement in Buffalo practices the Dalai Lama’s pleas for peace. The TGSA is a small organization because there simply aren’t that many Tibetans at UB. “There are only about nine of us,” said Youdon. “It’s hard for all of us to meet at once since we have different schedules.” They plan on protesting in front of the Buffalo City Hall as soon as they get the permits and organize all of their members to participate.

There has been little to no confrontation between Tibetan and Chinese students, but small-scale incidents have arisen. Sarah, who has been relentlessly hanging informational flyers, describes an incident in which Chinese students were following behind her, taking down the flyers she had just put up. “I confronted them and told them that they can’t do that here. This isn’t China.”

Zhang describes the sentiment of the Chinese students as uncomfortable. “We just want everyone to calm down,” said Zhang, who sees common ground between Tibetan and Chinese students. “I don’t want anyone to argue with each other because everyone is a UB student.”

While the Summer Olympics in Beijing rapidly approach, the likeliness of more protests in China in the name of a free Tibet seems inevitable. Youdon expresses the lengths of her resolve. “Until my last breath I will speak for truth, and get the word out. We will give our lives.”