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Heavy Presence of Chinese Police Quells Rioting in Tibet's Capital
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Activists and Tibetan exiles were scrambling to confirm accounts of dead and wounded monks and supporters and were seeking information on dozens, perhaps hundreds, of protesters who had been arrested.
Exiles in India said 49 Tibetans who tried to organize a march in Xigaze, Tibet's second-largest city, were arrested Saturday morning. A group of 44 exiles in India set off on a march to Tibet, after 102 marchers were detained by Indian authorities Friday.
Pro-Tibetan demonstrators protested at Chinese embassies in several countries Saturday. There were more protests near Labrang monastery in China's Gansu province, with reports saying police used tear gas to break up the crowd. In Washington, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged China to use restraint and to release monks and others jailed for protesting. And the head of the International Olympic Committee rejected calls from activists to boycott the Games.
Tibetan activists predicted that whatever happens in Lhasa, protests against China's rule over Tibet would continue to pressure China to change its hard-line policies. "For Tibetans outside, it's like the top has blown off the pot," said Lhadon Tethong, a spokesman for Students for a Free Tibet in Dharmsala, India.
The Chinese government depicted the violence as the result of a plot by supporters of the Dalai Lama, who has been in exile in India since 1959 after leading a failed uprising against Chinese rule. According to Tibetans, the protests are a reaction to China's increasingly repressive policies, which they say are undermining Tibetan culture and religion while exploiting its people and land.
"Tibetans are experiencing severe economic marginalization," said Kate Saunders, communications director for the Washington-based International Campaign for Tibet. Nomads, who once grazed livestock on grasslands that make up 80 percent of the vast region, are being resettled into farming communities while their land is "literally taken from under their feet."
In the cities, the situation is particularly acute, as Chinese set up business operations and hire other Chinese as employees. Even in the square outside the 1,400-year-old Jokhang Temple, traditional Tibetan scarves are sold by Chinese traders, she said.
Tibet has 2.8 million people, 95 percent of whom are Tibetan and other non-Chinese ethnic groups.
Tensions in Tibet had been rising during the past two years, after Beijing built a railroad line to Lhasa and thousands of Chinese streamed into Tibet.
Meanwhile, local Chinese officials severely restrict traditional Buddhist practices, and their virulent attacks on the Dalai Lama fuel widespread resentment among Buddhists, Saunders said.
"The Dalai Lama has a pretty good image in the West," said a Chinese researcher in Beijing who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the topic. "The Chinese government has been made to look evil on the Tibet issue, so it is pointless for the government to try to explain anything to the international community."
Correspondent Rama Lakshmi in New Delhi and correspondent Maureen Fan and researcher Zhang Jie in Beijing contributed to this report.
