In 1956, the Chinese Army killed Palder'sgrandmother, and his aunt, Palder said. He fledTibet in 1959 to India while his father was stillin prison.
He still remembers when the Chinese Armyvisited his home right before they fled, searchingfor information on an escaped dissident. He wasseven years old at the time.
"They pointed a gun at my mother, who yelled'My God, I don't know'. They kicked her to theground and said 'Where's God? Show me God"',Palder recounted.
A Harvard student who asked named stressed theimportance of education.
"Once people have knowledge, you can gainfreedom. You don't know what freedom is when youdon't have an education," she said.
In fact, she said, education is more importantthan a free democracy.
"I don't mind who controls the government; themost important thing is education."
Most demonstrators were from the Boston area,although they came from all over New England toattend Zhu's visit.
Over 50 students bussed down from theUniversity of New Hampshire (UNH) to welcome theChinese p premier.
Xiang Qu, a second-year UNH graduate student,expressed his sentiments with a red and yellowsign reading "Splitism Go To The Hell."
"We just love our country; we want to keep itunited. There's no way Tibet should be liberated,"he said.
"The American people should go to Tibet to seewhat it's like. I think most of them get paid toprotest against the Chinese government."
Others, like Youg Zhou, a fifth-year BostonUniversity graduate student who had a close friendshot at the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989,were more critical.
"We still have a lot of room for progress. Ifeel sorry for what happened," he said.
With 10 years hindsight, however, he said it'stime to move on to more immediate issues, like theeconomic crisis that took Asia in its grip in July1997.
"It's hard to talk about democracy on a hungrystomach," he said.