Two Killed at Pro-tibet Rally in China

A policeman and a Tibetan monk were killed in Sichuan province, southern China, it was reported today, after another Tibetan independence demonstration turned violent.

The demonstration in Garze started as a peaceful march by monks and nuns yesterday, but grew violent when armed police tried to stop the protest after residents joined in, the India-based Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy said.

China's official Xinhua news agency said the protesters had attacked police with knives and stones, killing one policeman.

The Tibetan rights group said one monk died and another was critically wounded when police fired live rounds into the gathering.

It was not possible to confirm either claim immediately. China has banned foreign journalists from traveling to the protest areas, making it extremely difficult to verify any information. Officials in Garze denied anything had happened.

Garze borders Tibet, where several days of anti-government protests led by monks spiraled into violence on March 14 in the capital, Lhasa. Demonstrations in support of the Lhasa protests spread rapidly throughout provinces surrounding Tibet.

The latest unrest in Garze shows that Tibetan protesters remain defiant a week after thousands of Chinese troops fanned out to patrol areas outside of Lhasa and clamp down on fresh conflicts.

The uprising is the broadest and most sustained against Chinese rule in almost two decades. The communist leadership has accused Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, and his supporters of masterminding the dissent.

The government says at least 22 people have died in Lhasa, while Tibetan rights groups say nearly 140 Tibetans have been killed, including 19 in Gansu province.

Meng Jianzhu, the minister of public security, has ordered Tibet's security forces to remain on the alert for further unrest and said "patriotic education" campaigns would be strengthened in monasteries, according to the Tibet Daily newspaper.

"The Dalai clique refuses to give up their evil designs, and even in their death throes are planning new acts of sabotage," Meng was quoted as saying during a visit to Lhasa.

Meng was the first high-level central government official to visit since protests began in the Tibetan capital on March 10, the anniversary of a failed uprising against Chinese rule.

Unrest among Tibet's Buddhist clergy has been blamed in part on compulsory "patriotic education" classes, widely reviled by monks for cutting into religious study and forcing them to make ritual denouncements of the Dalai Lama, who fled to India in 1959 after the failed revolt.

The continued Tibetan resistance and the hard line stance of officials has put China's human rights record under the spotlight and has frustrated the communist leadership, which is hoping for a smooth run-up to the Beijing Olympics.

The Olympic torch-lighting ceremony in Greece was disrupted by pro-Tibetan protesters yesterday. The disturbance was not mentioned by Chinese state-run media.

Meanwhile, today, police armed with bamboo sticks stopped a protest by Tibetan refugees and monks in front of the Chinese embassy in Nepal and arrested about 100 participants.

Chanting "Free Tibet" and "Chinese thieves leave our country," the protesters approached the visa office of the embassy in Kathmandu.

Police officers stopped them at the gate of the fortified compound and tried to push them away from the area. When the demonstrators refused to leave, the officers shoved about 100 protesters into vans and trucks and drove them to detention centres.

Yesterday, police in Nepal broke up at least two protests by Tibetan exiles, monks and their supporters yesterday and arrested about 475 people, according to the UN.

The UN human rights office said it was "deeply concerned at the arbitrary arrests and detentions of several hundred individuals".