Chinese Relentlessly Patrol A Subdued but Jittery Lhasa

LHASA, China -- Two elderly Tibetan women lay prostrate before the Potala Palace on a recent day, venerating the 1,000-room hilltop monument that was once the seat of an independent Tibetan government and the Dalai Lama's winter residence.

About 30 feet away, two helmeted Chinese guards observed the display of traditional Buddhist devotion. Elsewhere in the Tibetan capital, other guards barred entrance to the city's most celebrated temples. Residents moved about their business, nervous and subdued.

One month after the explosion of violence that catapulted remote Tibet into the international spotlight, protests over Chinese policies here continue to unfold in many parts of the world, undermining China's effort to make the 2008 Beijing Olympics a display of progress at home and amity abroad. But here in Lhasa, the most visible outcome has been relentless street patrols by men in People's Armed Police uniforms who carry automatic rifles, check Tibetans' identification cards at random, and guard intersections and gasoline stations.

Partly as a result, the city's economic life has started to resume in commercial areas away from the main temples and Tibetan residential quarters. Street traffic has picked up in recent days, for instance, and Han Chinese merchants -- who run most businesses here -- have reopened some of the shops that were burned out by crimson-robed monks and other Tibetan rioters on March 14.

Some businessmen have moved their salvaged wares onto sidewalk tables. Others have taken to shouting out promises of discounts to lure customers inside, where debris still crunches on the floor and the odor of smoke still fouls the air. Among the customers one recent day were off-duty Chinese security forces, seeking bargain DVDs to while away downtime in their barracks.

According to three Chinese sources, some of the security forces in People's Armed Police uniforms are in fact soldiers from the People's Liberation Army who have been ordered to disguise the extent of their deployment in Lhasa -- most likely because of concerns over international reaction. Soldiers have taped newspapers over the plates and other insignia on their vehicles and have been discreet in conversations with local residents, Chinese as well as Tibetan, these sources said.

A tourist visiting from the southern city of Shenzhen said she had been told by a friend in the army that his unit had assigned 2,000 men to patrols in Lhasa and expected the mission to last until after the Beijing Olympics in August.

Walks around Lhasa over several days showed that the security forces are most numerous around Jokhang and Ramoche temples, in the central zone, and in the residential Gama Kusang neighborhood immediately to the east. Anyone seen loitering outside the temples was told to move along by the security forces.

These areas, with temples at the center, were at the center of the rioting that killed 22 people by official count, almost all Han Chinese, and touched off a week of similar unrest among monks in Tibetan-inhabited areas of Sichuan, Gansu, Qinghai and Yunnan provinces.

Another site of anti-government unrest, Seyrat Temple, three miles north of the city center, was closed off entirely. Security forces with bayonets fixed on their automatic rifles prevented people from drawing near to the temple over the weekend, allowing passage only to those who could prove they lived in the area.

The security forces seemed relaxed, suggesting they did not feel threatened by more violence. But Tibetans in the streets avoided eye contact with the guards, then stared at them when they were not looking. Many Tibetans have never bothered to get government identity cards, residents said, making the street checks an ordeal and creating long lines at neighborhood police stations where they are issued.

The identity checks are one method to spot fugitive monks wanted for participation in the riots. More than 1,000 Tibetans have been arrested since the violence, according to Chinese authorities.