China blanketed restive Tibetan areas Thursday with a huge buildup
of troops, turning small towns across a wide swath of western China
into armed encampments.
Beijing acknowledged that last week's anti-government protests had
spread far beyond Tibet's borders and that police opened fire on
protesters. It warned foreign tourists and journalists to stay away
from a huge expanse of territory across four provinces.
In an overture of peace, the Dalai Lama offered to meet with Chinese
President Hu Jintao and other leaders, reiterating that he was not
asking for Tibetan independence.
China has repeatedly ignored calls for dialogue, accusing the exiled
Tibetan leader and his supporters of organizing violence in hopes of
sabotaging the upcoming Beijing Olympics and promoting Tibetan
independence.
Hundreds of paramilitary troops aboard at least 80 trucks were seen
traveling along the main road winding through the mountains into
southeastern Tibet. Others set up camp and patrolled streets in riot
gear, helmets and rifles in the town of Tiger Leaping Gorge, a tourist
attraction in Yunnan province bordering Tibet.
Farther north, the largely Tibetan town of Zhongdian, renamed
Shangri-la a decade ago, was swarmed by 400 armed police. Many carried
rifles and what appeared to be tear gas launchers. Residents walked
freely among the military, and there was no sign of a daytime curfew.
The troop mobilization was helping authorities reassert control
after the broadest, most sustained protests by Tibetans against Chinese
rule in decades. Demonstrations had flared across Tibetan areas of
Sichuan, Gansu and Qinghai provinces in support of protests that
started in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa.
Led by Buddhist monks, protests had begun peacefully in Lhasa early
last week but erupted into rioting on March 14, drawing a harsh
response from Chinese authorities.
The crackdown drew worldwide attention to China's human rights
record, threatening to overshadow Beijing's attempts to project an
image of unity and prosperity in the lead-up to the Aug. 8-24 Olympics.
On Thursday, a group of 26 Nobel laureates said they "deplore and
condemn the Chinese government's violent crackdown on Tibetan
protesters," calling for Beijing to exercise restraint.
"We protest the unwarranted campaign waged by the Chinese government
against our fellow Nobel Laureate, his holiness the Dalai Lama," the
group said in a statement released by the Elie Wiesel Foundation.
Tibetan exile groups have said 80 people were killed in the protest
and its aftermath, while Beijing maintains that 16 died and more than
300 were injured.
Tibetan television in Lhasa showed video Thursday of black-clad
police arresting 24 men. Handcuffed against a wall, the men — some
young, some old — were charged with "endangering national security,
beating, smashing, looting and burning."
The two remaining foreign journalists in Tibet — Georg Blume of
Germany and Kristin Kupfer of Austria — were forced to leave Lhasa on
Thursday, according to Reporters Without Borders. Earlier this week,
Economist correspondent James Miles and a group of 15 Hong Kong
reporters were forced out.
Speaking from the seat of his government-in-exile in Dharmsala,
India, the Dalai Lama offered to meet with Hu and other Chinese leaders
but said he would not travel to Beijing unless there was a "real
concrete development."
"The whole world knows the Dalai Lama is not seeking independence,
one hundred times, thousand times I have repeated this. It is my mantra
— we are not seeking independence," the 72-year-old Dalai Lama told
reporters.
"The Tibet problem must be solved between Tibetan people and Chinese people," he said.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry, meanwhile, expressed "grave concern"
over a planned meeting between British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and
the Dalai Lama, telling Brown not to offer support to the Tibetans'
exiled spiritual leader.
China says the riots and protests were organized from abroad by the Dalai Lama and his supporters.
Reinforcing that claim, state broadcaster China Central
Television aired a 15-minute program Thursday night, showing how
Tibetan rioters rampaged through Lhasa last week but none of the
ensuing police crackdown.
Video from security cameras showed burned shops, wounded
Chinese and a knife-wielding Tibetan standing atop a police car.
Buddhist monks were shown throwing sticks and other debris at riot
police in a scuffle on March 10, in an attempt to portray the protests
as having been started by monks.
But authorities have moved to clamp down on unrest in Tibet and
surrounding provinces, where more than half of China's 5.4 million
Tibetans live. Moving from town to town, police have set up blockades
and checkpoints to keep Tibetans in and reporters out.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said China is "suggesting"
foreigners stay out of Gansu and Sichuan provinces for safety reasons.
But tour operators in the provinces said foreigners were barred
from traveling in those areas and tour groups were banned from Tibet,
isolating a region about four times the size of France.
An employee at the Nine Lakes Travel Agency in Lanzhou, Gansu
province, said she had heard about recent protests and unrest in many
counties around the province.
"Tourists are not allowed to enter the seven counties affected
because it considered dangerous at the moment. It is not safe to travel
here at this time," she said, refusing to give her name for fear of
reprisal.
Despite the massive security, protests have continued to crop up in towns in Qinghai, Sichuan and Gansu provinces.
The official Xinhua News Agency said police shot and wounded
four rioters "in self-defense" during violent protests Sunday in Aba
County in Sichuan. It is the first time the government has acknowledged
shooting any protesters during the unrest.
A Tibetan resident in Aba County said Thursday she had heard of numerous arrests of protesters.
"There are many, many troops outside. I'm afraid to leave the
house," said the woman, who refused to give her name for fear of
retaliation by authorities. Police could be heard shouting from
loudspeakers for protesters to turn themselves in.
Troops blocked roads in nearby Sertar, also in Sichuan,
confining residents to their homes, said a woman reached there by
phone. The London-based Free Tibet Campaign reported that troops had
been sent to the county after residents blew up a bridge near the
village of Gudu.
A hotel worker in central Luqu County, in neighboring Gansu
province, said she had not left the hotel in four days because she was
afraid.
"On the 16th, hundreds of Tibetan protesters marched in the
streets, throwing rocks and breaking windows. The streets are now
filled with police officers," she said, refusing to give her name for
fear of reprisal. "Our hotel is booked out with tourists, but no one
feels safe enough to set foot outside." (***)
