The Chinese Saga of Olympic Shame Spreads -- Tibetan riots spread,
security lockdown in Lhasa £¯ Reuters
Tibetan riots spread, security lockdown in Lhasa
Sun Mar 16, 2008 6:43pm EDT
By Benjamin Kang Lim and Chris Buckley
BEIJING (Reuters) - Rioting erupted in a province neighboring Tibet on
Sunday, two days after violent protests by Tibetans against Chinese rule
in Lhasa in which the region's exiled representatives said 80 people had
been killed.
Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, said the Tibetan nation was in
serious danger and called for an investigation into what he called
cultural genocide in his homeland.
A police officer in Aba county, Sichuan, one of four provinces with
large Tibetan populations, said a crowd of Tibetans had hurled petrol
bombs in the main county town, burned down a police station and a market
and set fire to two police cars and a fire truck.
"They've gone crazy," said the officer, her voice trembling down the
telephone as the main government building there came under siege.
Security forces fired tear gas and arrested five people.
The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy said on a Web site
that paramilitary police shot and killed at least seven protesters. A
police officer, reached by telephone, denied this.
One ethnic Tibetan resident in Aba said there were sounds like gunshots
and there was widespread talk of 10 or more dead.
"Now it's very tense. There are police going round everywhere, checking
and looking over people for injuries," said another Aba resident, adding
that many of the rioters were students of a Tibetan-language high school.
Anti-riot troops locked down Lhasa -- remote, high in the Himalayas and
barred to foreign journalists without permission -- to prevent a repeat
of Friday's violence, the most serious in nearly two decades.
A businessman there, reached by telephone, said a tense calm had
descended on the city and most people were staying indoors.
Xinhua news agency said the authorities had stopped granting foreigners
tourist permits to visit Lhasa for their "safety".
"We also suggest foreign tourists now in Tibet leave in the coming
days," Xinhua quoted Ju Jianhua, director with the region's foreign
affairs office, as saying.
The Dalai Lama, the Nobel peace laureate who fled to India in 1959,
called from his Dharamsala base in the Himalayan foothills for an
investigation into the situation in Tibet.
"Whether China's government admits or not, there is a problem ... the
nation with ancient cultural heritage is actually facing serious
dangers...," the Dalai Lama, reviled by Beijing as a separatist, told
re****ters in Dharamsala.
"Then also, whether intentionally or unintentionally, somewhere cultural
genocide is taking place," he said, calling on Tibetans to express their
resentment peacefully.
"CHINA DESERVES OLYMPICS"
The Dalai Lama, who says he wants more autonomy but not independence for
Tibet, said China deserved to host the August Olympic Games, but the
international community had a "moral responsibility" to remind China to
be a good host.
State-run China Central Television (CCTV) said on Sunday that social
order had "basically been restored" in Lhasa, but showed footage of
deserted streets choked with debris and burnt-out buildings near the
central Jokhang temple area.
Clean-up crews were out on city streets on Sunday to shovel charred
wreckage onto trucks and remove overturned vehicles, and government
agencies and schools would resume normal operation on Monday, Xinhua
news agency said.
The spasm of Tibetan anger at the Chinese presence in the region
followed days of peaceful protests by monks and dealt a sharp blow to
Beijing's preparations for the Olympics, when China wants to showcase
prosperity and unity.
The Tibetan government-in-exile in Dharamsala said 80 people had died in
the clashes between authorities and protesters last week, and 72 had
been injured.
Xinhua news agency said only that 10 "innocent civilians" had died,
mostly in fires lit by rioters, and that 12 policemen had been seriously
injured.
Tibet is one of several potential flashpoints for the ruling Communist
Party at a time of heightened attention on China.
The government is concerned about the effect of inflation and wealth
gaps on social stability after years of breakneck economic growth, and
this month it said it had foiled two plots by Uighur militants in the
large Muslim northwestern region of Xinjiang, including an attempt to
disrupt the Olympics.
Kang Xiaoguang, a political scientist at the People's University of
China who has long studied social stability, said there was very little
chance of the Tibetan protests sparking a chain reaction in broader China.
"I think the chances are minimal," he said. "This is a localized
problem. In the Han Chinese regions there's virtually zero sympathy for
the Tibetan rioters, and so virtually zero chance that this will spread."
The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy said in an e-mail that
monks of the Amdo Ngaba Kirti monastery, also in Sichuan's Aba
prefecture, had raised the banned Tibetan flag and shouted
pro-independence slogans after prayers on Sunday.
Chinese security forces stormed the monastery, fired tear gas and
prevented the monks from taking to the streets, it said. The re****t
could not be independently confirmed.
(Additional re****ting by Jason Subler, Lindsay Beck and Ian Ransom in
Beijing, John Ruwitch in Chengdu and by Jonathan Allen in Dharamsala)
(Editing by Tim Pearce)
http://www.reuters.com/articlePrint?articleId=USLAU64099220080316
Tibet: ****traits of An Anguished and Angry People -- Picture Collection
By Reuter Photo Journalists
http://www.reuters.com/resources/r/?m=02&d=20080316&t=2&i=3538644&w=&r=2008-03-16T183206Z_01_LAU640992_RTRUKOP_0_PICTURE0
Chinese soldiers sit on armoured personnel carriers (APCs) as they guard
the streets in Lhasa, Tibet March 16, 2008. Rioting erupted in a
province neighbouring Tibet on Sunday, two days after violent protests
by Tibetans against Chinese rule in Lhasa that the region's exiled
representatives said had killed 80 people. REUTERS/Stringer
http://www.reuters.com/resources/r/?m=02&d=20080316&t=2&i=3537191&w=&r=2008-03-16T132906Z_01_LAU640992_RTRUKOP_0_PICTURE1
Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, addresses a news conference at
Dharamsala in the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh March 16,
2008. The Dalai Lama called on Sunday for an investigation into China's
tough response to protests in Tibet, and whether it was deliberate
"cultural genocide".
http://www.reuters.com/resources/r/?m=02&d=20080316&t=2&i=3538379&w=&r=2008-03-16T173136Z_01_LAU640992_RTRUKOP_0_PICTURE2
Residents sit in front of a restaurant in Lhasa, Tibet March 16, 2008.
Rioting erupted in a province neighbouring Tibet on Sunday, two days
after violent protests by Tibetans against Chinese rule in Lhasa that
the region's exiled representatives said had killed 80 people. A
businessman there, reached by telephone, said a tense calm had descended
on the city and most people were staying indoors. REUTERS/Stringer
http://www.reuters.com/resources/r/?m=02&d=20080316&t=2&i=3537395&w=&r=2008-03-16T140707Z_01_LAU640992_RTRUKOP_0_PICTURE2
Residents haul water up to the rooftop, as they are not allowed to leave
their homes, in Lhasa, Tibet March 16, 2008. Rioting erupted in a
province neighbouring Tibet on Sunday, two days after violent protests
by Tibetans against Chinese rule in Lhasa that the region's exiled
representatives said had killed 80 people. REUTERS/Stringer
http://www.reuters.com/resources/r/?m=02&d=20080316&t=2&i=3537194&w=&r=2008-03-16T132906Z_01_LAU640992_RTRUKOP_0_PICTURE2
Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, addresses a news conference at
Dharamsala in the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh March 16,
2008. The Dalai Lama called on Sunday for an investigation into China's
tough response to protests in Tibet, and whether it was deliberate
"cultural genocide". REUTERS/Stringer
http://www.reuters.com/resources/r/?m=02&d=20080316&t=2&i=3538380&w=&r=2008-03-16T173136Z_01_LAU640992_RTRUKOP_0_PICTURE5
A woman walks past policemen in a street in Xiahe town Gansu province
March 16, 2008. Rioting erupted in a province neighbouring Tibet on
Sunday, two days after violent protests by Tibetans against Chinese rule
in Lhasa that the region's exiled representatives said had killed 80
people. REUTERS/Stringer
http://www.reuters.com/resources/r/?m=02&d=20080316&t=2&i=3538381&w=&r=2008-03-16T173136Z_01_LAU640992_RTRUKOP_0_PICTURE6
Tibetan monks pray at a monastery on the outskirts of the northeastern
Indian city of Siliguri March 16, 2008. The Dalai Lama called on Sunday
for an investigation into China's tough response to protests in Tibet,
and whether it was deliberate "cultural genocide".
REUTERS/Rupak De Chowdhuri
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A Tibetan shouts "Free Tibet" in the Nepalese capital Kathmandu March
16, 2008.
REUTERS/Gopal Chitrakar
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Tibetans shout slogans during a protest against the violent crackdown in
Tibet, in Brussels March 16, 2008. REUTERS/Thierry Roge
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Tibetan nuns chant slogans during a sit-in protest in New Delhi March
16, 2008.
REUTERS/Adnan Abidi
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Tibetan exiles shout slogans during a sit-in protest in New Delhi March
16, 2008.
REUTERS/Adnan Abidi
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Tibetan exiles shout slogans during a sit-in protest in New Delhi March
16, 2008.
REUTERS/Adnan Abidi
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Tibetan exiles shout slogans during a sit-in protest in New Delhi March
16, 2008.
REUTERS/Adnan Abidi
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Tibetans shout slogans during a protest against the violent crackdown in
Tibet, in Brussels March 16, 2008. REUTERS/Thierry Roge
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Chinese soldiers sit on armoured personnel carriers (APCs) as they guard
the streets in Lhasa, Tibet March 16, 2008. Rioting erupted in a
province neighbouring Tibet on Sunday, two days after violent protests
by Tibetans against Chinese rule in Lhasa that the region's exiled
representatives said had killed 80 people. REUTERS/Stringer
http://www.reuters.com/resources/r/?m=02&d=20080316&t=2&i=3538643&w=&r=2008-03-16T183206Z_01_LAU640992_RTRUKOP_0_PICTURE15
A Tibetan monk lights candles, for his compatriots in Tibet, at
Boudhanath, a Buddhist stupa, in Kathmandu March 16, 2008. REUTERS/Euan
Denholm
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Pro-Tibet demonstrators take part in a rally outside China's embassy in
Rome March 16, 2008. REUTERS/Dario Pignatelli
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A police officer watches from his car as Tibetan monks walk across a
road in the Tibetan quarter of the city of Chengdu in Sichuan Province
March 16, 2008.
REUTERS/David Gray
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