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10 Dead as Protesters, Police Clash in Tibetan Capital
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The Dalai Lama, who lives in exile in India, issued a statement accusing China of using brute force to impose its culture on Tibetans. "These protests are a manifestation of the deep-rooted resentment of the Tibetan people under the present governance," he said. "I therefore appeal to the Chinese leadership to stop using force and address the long-simmering resentment of the Tibetan people through dialogue."
The regional Tibet government said it was taking "effective measures to properly handle the incident," according to New China News Agency. It called the violence an act of sabotage that had been "organized, premeditated and masterminded by the Dalai clique."
"We did not open fire. However, we will deal harshly with these criminals who are carrying out activities to split the nation," Champa Phunstok, the head of the regional government, told the Associated Press.
Regional officials also said they would restore electricity and phone service, which had been cut part of the day.
Tibetan exile groups and activists have vowed to intensify their "Free Tibet" campaigns in the run-up to the Olympics, when China's record on human rights and religious freedom will be in the international spotlight. Chinese officials have responded icily to the pressure.
On Thursday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang told reporters in Beijing that the situation in Tibet had "stabilized." He also said China's resolve to "safeguard national unification" was firm, so further protests "will not take place."
Despite the tough words, protests spread Friday, not only in Lhasa but elsewhere in China and neighboring countries with large Tibetan exile populations. Up to 4,000 ethnic Tibetans marched in the northwestern Chinese province of Gansu. A Tibetan rights group reported that that protest had also turned violent.
The protests in Lhasa began Monday, when a few Buddhist monks and nuns demonstrated in a plaza in front of the 1,400-year-old Jokhang Temple, one of Tibet's most sacred sites, to commemorate the region's failed 1959 uprising against China. Hundreds of monks from Drepung Monastery, in the mountains outside the city, marched to join them but were stopped by police, according to news reports. About 50 to 60 of them were arrested.
On Tuesday, hundreds more monks took to the streets from nearby Sera Monastery to demand that police release everyone arrested. They were reportedly dispersed with tear gas. By Wednesday, police had begun to surround the big monasteries.
One source who had spoken with witnesses in Lhasa said that plainclothes officers had videotaped the first two days of demonstrations, focusing on the faces of those involved. The military junta in Burma used similar tactics before its violent crackdown on democracy protests last September and later launched house-to-house searches to identify participants, many of whom were arrested and interrogated.
News reports from Lhasa said police had begun house-to-house searches in predominantly Tibetan neighborhoods, looking for monks and nuns who were not registered with local authorities. There were other reports that two monks inside one monastery had attempted suicide and that others were staging hunger strikes.
Early Saturday, police patrolled the streets and traffic was severely restricted, one resident said in a brief phone interview.
The last time China cracked down so publicly on Tibetan protests was in 1989, when it declared martial law to put down thousands of protesters. At least 75 people were killed and hundreds arrested. Chinese President Hu Jintao, the Communist Party chief in Tibet at the time, gave the orders.
After that, Beijing moved swiftly to consolidate control over Tibet's Buddhists and dilute the Dalai Lama's authority, said Barnett, the Tibet scholar. The government created "democratic management committees" in each monastery that allowed Beijing to move security officials inside. They also built police stations just outside the walls of several of Tibet's largest monasteries.
Three times in the past nine years, China has required monks to engage in "patriotic education drives" in which they were made to study Chinese policies and write statements denouncing the Dalai Lama.
Beijing's campaign against the Dalai Lama kicked into high gear after Zhang Qingli was appointed Communist Party boss of the region two years ago. "He makes incredibly insulting statements about the Dalai Lama," Barnett said of Zhang. "And he instituted a zero-tolerance policy. The slightest incident is treated as a major threat to the nation."
The Chinese invaded Tibet in 1950, and their rule over the region has long been uneasy, marked by periodic protests that in recent years have drawn worldwide attention as celebrities took up the cause. Beijing insists that Tibet has historically been a part of China and points to a huge wave of economic development it has backed in the region. But the Dalai Lama and other Tibetan exiles say development is destroying the region.
Beijing has insisted that politics should not intrude on the Olympics, but its decision to route the path of the Olympic flame over Mount Everest in Tibet galvanized those who oppose its claim over the region.
