Tibet: 'Thirty confirmed deaths' in Chinese crackdown

The main Tibetan exile group said today Chinese authorities have killed at least 30 Tibetan demonstrators and injured many more during protests against Chinese rule in the Tibetan capital.

The Tibetan government in exile, based in the north Indian town of Dharamsala, offered no details in their statement, and only says “there have been 30 confirmed deaths until today, and over 100 unconfirmed deaths”.

The statement comes after protests by Buddhist monks in Tibet turned violent, with shops and vehicles set on fire and gunshots fired in the streets of the region’s capital, Lhasa. Earlier reports have said at least 10 people were killed.

China was reported to have locked down the Tibetan capital today after the largest and most violent protests against its rule in the region in nearly two decades.

Also today, police broke up sympathy protests in China’s western province of Gansu, Australia, India and Nepal.

Streets in Lhasa were mostly empty as a curfew remained in place. Eyewitnesses described baton-wielding police patrolling streets as fires from Friday’s violence smouldered. Reports of deaths and arrests were varied and could not be independently confirmed.

China’s official Xinhua News Agency said 10 people – including two hotel employees and two shop owners – were burned to death, but no foreigners were hurt. The report did not give any other details.

The unrest comes two weeks before China’s highly anticipated Olympic celebrations kick into high gear with the start of the torch relay, which passes through Tibet.

Sun Weide, a spokesman for the Beijing Olympics organising committee, said the unrest would not have a negative impact on the Games or the torch relay.

Preparations to carry the Olympic torch across Mount Everest and across Tibet “have been proceeding very smoothly and according to schedule,” Mr Sun said.

“The hosting of the Beijing Games is the 100-year dream for Chinese people and I think the Chinese people, including our compatriots in Tibet, very much look forward to hosting the Games,” Mr Sun said.

The US and other governments have urged China to show restraint on the protesters, though International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge deferred, saying he didn’t have details.

“It is not our job,” Mr Rogge, the IOC president, told reporters while visiting Puerto Rico. “We are not an activist organisation.”

China’s governor in Tibet vowed to punish the rioters, while law enforcement authorities urged protesters to turn themselves in by Tuesday or face unspecified punishment.

“We will deal harshly with these criminals in accordance with the law,” Champa Phuntsok, chairman of the Tibetan government, told reporters in Beijing where he was attending a legislative meeting.

“Beating, smashing, looting and burning – we absolutely condemn this sort of behaviour. This plot is doomed to failure.”

He blamed the protests on followers of the Dalai Lama, who fled into exile in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule and is still Tibet’s widely revered spiritual leader.

From India, the Dalai Lama appealed to China not to use force, saying he was “deeply concerned,” and urged Tibetans “not to resort to violence”.

Over the centuries, Tibet was at times part of China’s dynastic empires. Communist forces invaded the region in 1950, to reclaim the Himalayan region and seize the commanding heights overlooking rival India.

The latest unrest began on Monday, the anniversary of the 1959 uprising, when 300 monks from one monastery demanded the release of other monks detained last autumn. But political demands soon came to the fore.

The violence erupted on the fifth day, after police tried to stop monks from protesting in central Lhasa, ordinary Tibetans vented pent-up anger on Chinese, hurling stones and torching shops and cars.

“The protesters yesterday went from attacking Chinese police to attacking innocent people very, very quickly,” said a blog entry by a group of Westerners staying in a hotel in central Lhasa near the riot. “Many Tibetans were also caught in the crossfire.”

On Saturday, Xinhua said Lhasa had “reverted to calm” and electricity and phone service, which had been cut for parts of Friday, was being restored.

A notice issued by Tibet’s high court, prosecutors office and police department offered leniency for demonstrators who surrender before Tuesday. Otherwise, they will be “severely punished,” according to a notice carried on official websites and confirmed by prosecutors.

Some shops in Lhasa were closed. Tourists were told to stay in their hotels and make plans to leave, but government staff were required to work.

“There’s no conflict today. The streets look pretty quiet,” said a woman who answered the telephone at the Lhasa Hotel.

Tourists reached by phone described soldiers standing in lines sealing off streets where the rioting occurred. Armoured vehicles and trucks ferried soldiers.

“There are military blockades blocking off whole portions of the city, and the entire city is basically closed down,” said a 23-year-old Western student who arrived in Lhasa on Saturday. “All the restaurants are closed, all the hotels are closed.”

Plooij Frans, a Dutch tourist who left the capital this morning by plane and arrived in the Nepali capital of Katmandu, said he saw about 140 trucks of soldiers drive into the city within 24 hours.

“They came down on Tibetan people really hard,” said Mr Frans, who said his group could not return to their hotel on Friday and had to stay near the airport. “Every corner there were tanks. It would have been impossible to hold any protest today.”

Government workers said they have been prevented from leaving their buildings.

“We’ve been here since yesterday. No one has been allowed to leave or come in,” said a woman who works for Lhasa’s Work Safety Bureau, which is located near the Potala Palace, the former residence of the Dalai Lama.

“Armoured vehicles have been driving past,” she said. “Men wearing camouflage uniforms and holding batons are patrolling the streets.

It is extremely difficult to get independent verification of events in Tibet since China maintains rigid control over the area. Foreigners need special travel permits, and journalists are rarely granted access except under highly controlled circumstances.

The violence poses difficulties for a communist leadership that has looked to the August 8-24 Olympics as a way to recast China as a friendly, modern power. Too rough a crackdown could put that at risk, while balking could embolden protesters, costing Beijing authority in often restive Tibet.

Mr Phuntsok, the Tibetan government head, said no shots were fired.

In the western Chinese town of Xiahe, police fired tear gas to disperse Buddhist monks and others staging a second day of protests today.

Several hundred monks marched out of historic Labrang monastery and into Xiahe in the morning, gathering other Tibetans with them as they went, residents said.

The crowd attacked government buildings, smashing windows in the county police headquarters, before police fired tear gas to put an end to the protest. A London-based Tibetan activist group, Free Tibet Campaign, said 20 people were arrested, citing unidentified sources in Xiahe.

Pockets of dissent were also springing up outside China.

In Australia, media reported that police used batons and pepper spray to quell a demonstration outside the Chinese consulate in Sydney. The Australian Associated Press reported that dozens of demonstrators were at the scene and that five were arrested.

Dozens of protesters in India launched a new march just days after more than 100 Tibetan exiles were arrested by authorities during a similar rally.

And in Nepal’s capital of Katmandu, police broke up a protest by Tibetans and arrested 20.