China Brings Foreign Press on Day Trip to Riot-hit Tibetan City

China sought to show the world that it has restored order in Lhasa yesterday by inviting foreign reporters on a tightly controlled trip to the riot-torn Tibetan capital.

The first 26 journalists arrived as the government announced that 600 people had turned themselves in to the police and admitted their involvement in the disturbances which shook Lhasa on March 14 before spreading to neighboring provinces.

Closely watched by official minders, the reporters will have one full day in the city, and will meet officials and victims of arson attacks, beatings and other crimes that occurred when police ceded control of the streets to protesters.

According to the government, at least 22 people died in Lhasa, most of them Han and Hui Chinese who either burned to death in fires or were killed by members of the indigenous population.

The reporters said fires had wrecked many buildings close to Potala Square. "Some of the stores that had not been damaged had white ceremonial scarves hanging from them. During the rioting, many Tibetans did that to let the protesters know not to stone or burn the buildings because they belonged to Tibetans," noted a report by the Associated Press.

The journalist said the group were free to leave the hotel, but they were advised not to do so for their own safety. Outside, they said there were checkpoints, but the police presence was not heavy.

Overseas Tibetan groups say this is only part of the story. They say almost 140 people died, many of them shot by the security forces in Lhasa and other areas of unrest in Qinghai, Gansu and Sichuan provinces.