Tibetan Protests Quashed, Claims China

Anti-government protests which spread from Tibet into western provinces are under control, the Chinese government said yesterday, as much of the region remained in lockdown.

Thousands of troops have poured into areas with large Tibetan populations in Gansu, Sichuan, Qinghai and even Yunnan, which has not seen unrest. Many Buddhist monasteries are under lockdown.

But Tibetan support campaigns said yesterday that they believed smaller scale acts of defiance were taking place despite the massive security operation and hunt for protesters. Journalists have been excluded and removed from the region and little information is trickling out, making it impossible to verify claims.

"Of course there is an escalation of troops. But we are hearing there are still protests breaking out in different places," said Kate Saunders of the International Campaign for Tibet. "Even though there is tremendous fear and many people are expecting the knock on the door in the middle of the night, it seems as though there has been a revitalisation of pride in their cultural identity and concerns about issues of religious freedom."

She cited reports of a hunger strike by monks at Tarthang Monastery, Jigdril county, Qinghai after a protest on Friday led to arrests and three protests in Quinghai and one in Gansu in the last few days.

Peaceful protests in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa escalated into violent riots on March 14, with attacks on Han Chinese and Hui Muslims. Unrest then flared in provinces with large Tibetan populations.

China yesterday revised the death toll from the Lhasa protests to 22, with the state news agency Xinhua reporting that the bodies of a family of five - including an 8-month-old boy - had been pulled from a garage which had been burned down.

The Dalai Lama's exiled government says 99 Tibetans have been killed - 80 in Lhasa, 19 in Gansu province.

China yesterday accused the Dalai Lama of plotting "terror" in Tibet and colluding with Uighur separatists in Xinjiang as it stepped up its security and propaganda drive. The People's Daily, the main mouthpiece of the Communist party, accused his followers of taking the Olympics "hostage" to force Beijing to grant concessions on Tibetan independence.

Tibet's exiled spiritual leader dismissed the accusation as baseless, saying he supported China's hosting of the summer games. He has criticized the violence in Lhasa and said he wants talks with China to negotiate autonomy rather than independence.

China also attacked Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the United States house of representatives, who called on the international community to denounce China and demanded an investigation into the situation in Tibet in a meeting with the Dalai Lama last week.

Xinhua said: "Human rights police like Pelosi are habitually bad tempered and ungenerous when it comes to China."

One of Thailand's six Olympic torchbearers has withdrawn from the relay - which begins today - in protest over Tibet. Narisa Chakrabongse said in an open letter that she wanted to "send a strong message to China that the world community could not accept its actions".