IMO if you're an activist and want to help that's ok but when soldiers start showing up I'd take their threats seriously and GTFO and go help somewhere else, even if I didn't agree with it, who the hell wants to be a martyr?
Can you imagine these protesters coming into the Tibet region of China, and protesting? Or going into the Crimea and protesting the Russian occupation? Or how about civilians landing in Guantanamo Bay, and holding demonstrations against the USA for their treatment of prisoners in the internment camps?
It would never happen.