  HONG KONG, July 12, 2004—A group of 23 petitioners from the northeastern Chinese province of Heilongjiang climbed a building outside the country's Supreme Court in Beijing on Monday in an apparent mass suicide bid over unresolved grievances, Radio Free Asia (RFA) reports. The 23 petitioners, some of whom were miners from China's rust-belt, climbed to the top of a building just 20 meters from the Supreme Court at 2 p.m. local time and threatened to jump, triggering a five-hour standoff with police and emergency services. Below them was a crowd of several thousand petitioners, who waved banners and shouted in sympathy, eyewitnesses told RFA’s Mandarin service. "There are several thousand petitioners around the sides of the building, carrying banners, shouting slogans and crying and wailing," fellow petitioner Zhang Chaoxin told RFA from the scene. "There are men and women, some are local residents from Beijing. And on top of the building as well, they are holding their petition documents and wailing," Zhang said, against a background of eerie shrieks and wails from the crowd.
"Most of them are petitioners, because this is where all the petitioners come," said Zhang, who traveled more than 1,000 miles from his hometown in the southern province of Guangdong to make his petition. "It's a highly emotional scene, but it's not out of hand. " He said police and rescue services had placed large safety cushions at the foot of the building to prevent any deaths should the protesters jump. -- Talk about a funny thing that happened on the way to the forum...(wild eh? ) Andrew B. 
