Monks Disrupt Image-Building Effort in Lhasa

Officials Set Up Temple Visit for Media

LHASA, China, March 27 -- EDITOR'S NOTE: Charles Hutzler, Beijing bureau chief for the Associated Press, was in a group of foreign journalists that was taken on a government-arranged trip to the Tibetan city of Lhasa.

A group of monks shouting that there was no religious freedom disrupted a carefully orchestrated visit for foreign reporters to the capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region on Thursday, an embarrassment for China as it tried to show that Lhasa was calm following deadly anti-government riots.

A Foreign Ministry spokesman later insisted that Tibetans had full rights and warned Europe not to interfere. Meanwhile, the Dalai Lama, the region's exiled spiritual leader, said he was in touch with "friends" about pursuing a dialogue with China, adding that Chinese authorities "must accept reality."

"I think this is time the Chinese government and Chinese officials, I think, must accept the reality. I think that's important. Now in any case, we are [in the] 21st century; pretending or lies cannot work," he said, speaking in New Delhi.

Officials arranged the trip for the reporters to show that Lhasa was at peace after the mid-March violence and a subsequent government crackdown that shattered China's plans for a smooth run-up to the Beijing Olympics.

The outburst by a group of 30 monks in red robes came as the journalists were being shown around the Jokhang Temple -- one of Tibet's holiest shrines -- by government handlers in Lhasa.

"Tibet is not free! Tibet is not free!" yelled one young Buddhist monk, who started to cry.

The monks also said the Dalai Lama had nothing to do with the riots by Tibetans in which buildings were torched and looted and ethnic Han Chinese were attacked. The government has said that the March 14 riots were organized by "the Dalai clique," the Chinese government's term for the Dalai Lama and his supporters.

Government handlers shouted for the journalists to leave and tried to pull them away during the protest.

"They want us to curse the Dalai Lama and that is not right," one monk said during the 15-minute outburst.

"This had nothing to do with the Dalai Lama," said another.

The Chinese government says 22 people died, while Tibetan exiles say the violence and the harsh crackdown afterward left nearly 140 people dead.

The rioting and four days of protests that preceded it were the worst anti-Chinese demonstrations in Lhasa in nearly two decades, and they sparked protests in Tibetan areas across a vast portion of western China. The Chinese government has maintained that its response was measured and comparable to what any responsible government would do when faced with civil unrest.

The monks, who first spoke Tibetan, then switched to Mandarin so the reporters could understand them, said they knew they probably would be arrested for their actions but were willing to accept that.

Later in the day, however, the China-installed vice governor of Tibet promised that the Jokhang monks would not be punished for their outburst. He said they previously had been confined to the monastery because some had taken part in the protests.

"We will never do anything to them. We will never detain anyone you met on the streets of Lhasa. I don't think any government would do such a thing," Baima Chilin told reporters.

China rarely lets foreign reporters into Tibet under normal circumstances, so the media tour was meant to underscore the communist leadership's determination to contain any damage ahead of the Beijing Olympics in August -- an event intended to celebrate China as a modern, rising power.

State television showed the visit by the reporters on its Thursday evening news but did not show any of the protest at the Jokhang Temple.