Protests in Tibet Turn Ugly

By Tini Tran

Associated Press Writer

March 14, 2008

CBNNews.com - BEIJING -- Angry protesters set shops on fire in the Tibetan regional capital of Lhasa on Friday, state media and witnesses said, part of ongoing demonstrations against China's 57-year rule by Buddhist monks ahead of the Beijing Olympics in August.

Protests against Chinese rule by monks and other Tibetans took a violent turn on Friday, with shops and police vehicles set on fire in the city's ancient center. The U.S. Embassy in Beijing, meanwhile, issued an advisory to Americans, warning them to stay away from Lhasa, saying it had "received firsthand reports from American citizens in the city who report gunfire and other indications of violence."

The protests are the largest in 19 years in the ancient mountain kingdom by Tibetans seeking the return of their exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.

Several shops were burning in Lhasa, Tibet's largest city, and owners of nearby businesses have shut their doors, China's state-run Xinhua News Agency reported.

Monks set fire to a shop after a protest near a small temple in Lhasa was stopped by police, said a Tibetan woman who has family in the city.

More than 100 people joined in demonstrations that began earlier in the day, said the woman, who didn't want to be identified.

"The monks are still protesting. Police and army cars were burned. There are people crying," said the witness. "Hundreds of people, including monks and civilians are in the protest."

'The Situation is Quite Serious'

Another Lhasa resident said military police had closed all roads leading to the city center.

"The situation is quite serious. There's a curfew in the city and I can see military police block all the roads to the center of the city. Nearly all the stores and shops are closed," said the man, who also asked to be unnamed.

The violence was the latest in a series of protests inside and outside Tibet that have put an unwelcome spotlight on China's policies in Tibet in the lead-up to this summer's Olympic Games in Beijing. Tibetan exiles have also held high-profile protests in northern India.

Tensions in the Tibetan capital have increased in recent days as the city's three biggest monasteries were sealed off by thousands of soldiers and armed police in a government crackdown against the largest protests in nearly two decades, the U.S.-funded Radio Free Asia reported Friday.

Monks at the major Sera Monastery launched a hunger strike Thursday to demand that armed police withdraw from the monastery grounds and detained monks be released, RFA reported.

At the Drepung Monastery, two Buddhist monks are in critical condition after attempting to commit suicide by slashing their wrists, RFA said, citing authoritative sources.

Tourists have been warned away from all the monasteries, said one tourist staying at a Lhasa hotel.

"The Red Army is downtown. It's not safe to walk around. All the major monasteries are closed," said the tourist, who refused to give her name or her nationality. "Tourists don't feel comfortable walking around because police are all over."

Officials who answered phones at police and Communist Party offices in Tibet on Friday said they had no information about the violence and refused to comment.

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.

Large-scale demonstrations that began Monday have spread to a third monastery, Ganden, in the Lhasa area, as well as the Reting monastery north of the city, according to RFA and the London-based International Campaign for Tibet.

The ICT said monks from the Ganden monastery mounted protests Thursday, becoming the last of the three historically important monasteries known as the "Three Pillars of Tibet" to join in the demonstrations.

An Attack on Tibetan Culture?

Beijing maintains that Tibet is historically a part of China. But many Tibetans argue the Himalayan region was virtually independent for centuries and accuse China of trying to crush Tibetan culture by swamping it with Han people, the majority Chinese ethnic group.

The protests by the Buddhist monks began Monday, the anniversary of the failed 1959 Tibetan uprising against Beijing rule.

In northern India, organizers say more than 100 Tibetan exiles began a two-week detention after police arrested them during a march to their homeland to protest China's hosting of the Olympic Games.

March coordinator Tenzin Palkyi said Friday the exiles were being kept in detention in a state-run hotel while authorities investigate the charges of threatening the "peace and tranquility" of the region.

Chinese Communist troops occupied Tibet in 1951 and Beijing continues to rule the region with a heavy hand. Beijing enforces strict controls on religious institutions and routinely vilifies the Dalai Lama, who fled to India in 1959 amid an aborted uprising against Chinese rule and won the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize.

China says it has ruled Tibet for centuries, although many Tibetans say their homeland was essentially an independent state for most of that time.

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