Tourists banned from Tibet ahead of Everest torch relay

Tibet has ordered travel agencies to stop arranging trips for foreigners in order to secure safe passage for the Olympic torch relay to Mount Everest next month, tour operators said today.

The decision is a reversal from the announcement tourism officials made last week that Tibet would reopen to foreign tourist groups on May 1.

The Himalayan region has been closed to outsiders since violent anti-government riots in the capital of Lhasa in mid-March.

Several tour operators said they received verbal notices this week from the regional tourism body telling them to stop arranging trips, citing the security of the Olympic torch as well as continuing safety concerns in Lhasa.

An employee at the Tibet China Youth Travel Service, based in Lhasa, said the company had received word on Tuesday.

“We received the emergency notice from the tourism bureau that, considering the safety of the torch which will go to Mount Everest in May, agencies are not allowed to receive tourist groups and foreign tourists,” he said.

He said the government’s decision will hurt Tibet’s expanding tourism industry. Last May, his company arranged trips for 3,000 to 4,000 foreign tourists.

He said he expected tourism to resume after the torch relay to Mount Everest.

The Xinxin Tourism Agency based in Sichuan province’s Chengdu, a major gateway city to Tibet, said it received notification yesterday.

“They told us to wait until further notice,” said an employee. “There are still criminals at large so it’s not safe. I heard people throw rocks at vehicles in Tibet.”

Yesterday, Tibet’s governor, Champa Phuntsok, said he expected independence activists to create “trouble” when the Olympic torch passes through the region.

“For these separatist forces, the Olympics in Beijing will be a rare opportunity,” he told reporters. “I don’t doubt they will create trouble during the torch relay in Tibet.”

He said special security preparations were being taken, but gave no details.

The Olympic torch, currently on a round-the-world tour, has been beset by demonstrators in Istanbul, Paris, London and San Francisco angry over China’s policies in Tibet and its human rights record.

It is to return to mainland China at the beginning of next month and continue through dozens of Chinese cities, including Lhasa in mid-June. A side relay is to take a second torch up to Mount Everest in early May.

China has already banned mountaineering groups from getting permits to climb its side of Everest between March and June. It also persuaded Nepal to enact a similar ban on the other side of the mountain.

The torch relay, the longest in Olympic history, was aimed at showcasing China’s rising economic and political power. Instead, Chinese leaders have come under increasing international criticism following their crackdown in March on massive anti-government demonstrations in Tibet and surrounding provinces.

Those protests have been the largest and most sustained challenge to Chinese rule in nearly two decades. China has said that 22 died in the March 14 riots, while Tibetan exile groups said 140 people were killed.

Meanwhile, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said a Chinese security team will not be allowed to run alongside the Olympic torch on the Australian leg of the Olympic torch relay on April 24.

Mr Rudd told a news conference today after meeting his Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao that “the total security needs of the Olympic torch during its visit to Australia will be provided by the Australian security authorities.”

The security team of paramilitary police sent by Beijing to guard the Olympic flame during its journey around the world have sparked an uproar in London and Paris.