Monks Interrupt State Media Trip in Protest at Chinese Crackdown

Monks disrupted China's attempts to present an image of newfound harmony in Tibet yesterday for the second time in recent weeks, bursting in on a state media trip to an area that experienced last month's unrest.

Chinese and foreign journalists were visiting Xiahe in Gansu province, where last month thousands of lamas and lay people took to the streets to protest against the government and demand the return of the Dalai Lama. Beijing is keen to show that life is returning to normal, despite reports that sporadic protests are still taking place.

But yesterday about 15 lamas carrying a banned Tibetan flag burst out of a building at Labrang monastery and rushed across to the group of media. The lamas claimed the authorities were still holding eight monks and that plain clothed agents of the paramilitary police force were stationed throughout the town.

"The Dalai Lama has to come back to Tibet. We are not asking for Tibetan independence, we are just asking for human rights, we have no human rights now," one monk told the reporters in Chinese.

A Reuters journalist on the trip said officials did not try to intervene, but a number of older monks persuaded the protesters to disperse after about 10 minutes.

A monk at Labrang later told the Associated Press that he had heard 2,000 people were detained following the protests.

China's state news agency, Xinhua, reported only that a group of monks at Labrang had interrupted the tour, and said the visit resumed soon afterwards.

Last month lamas at the Jokhang temple in Lhasa disrupted a trip for foreign journalists to Tibet, interrupting a speech on inter-ethnic harmony and telling reporters: "They are tricking you. Don't believe them. They are lying to you."

Monastery officials played down yesterday's protest. Gongqihujinba, the vice-director of its management committee, said: "What you journalists just saw was a very small minority of people who disrupt our harmonious and peaceful life and religious activities ... What they did was not consistent with national security laws, or rules on religion."

Guomangcang, the dean of religious affairs at a Buddhism academy attached to Labrang, added: "Maybe the young ones were not acting of their own accord, maybe someone influenced them."

Almost half the population of Xiahe is Tibetan and as many as 3,000 people took to the streets to protest on March 14 and 15. Some attacked government buildings but there were no reports of the kind of ethnic violence seen in Lhasa. Armed police used teargas grenades to disperse the crowds on March 15.

China poured troops into the region to restore order in the wake of the protests and reporters attempting to reach the area independently have mostly been turned back or ejected by security forces.

Reuters said the main street of Xiahe showed a few buildings with broken windows but little other obvious damage yesterday.