Deadline looms for Tibet protesters

updated 11:11 p.m. ET March 16, 2008

TONGREN, China - When riot police with bulletproof shields lined up outside the monastery in this Qinghai province city on Sunday, scared residents ducked indoors and wary businesses shut down.

But dozens of Tibetan monks marched up a hill outside Rongwo Monastery in defiance of an order to stay in their home. They set off fireworks and burned incense in a show of bravado as truckloads of paramilitary troops and plainclothes police officers surrounded the area.

Protests both big and small spread from Tibet into Qinghai and two other neighboring provinces Sunday as Tibetans defied a Chinese government crackdown and the Dalai Lama decried what he called the "cultural genocide" taking place in his homeland.

The demonstrations in Qinghai, Sichuan and Gansu provinces forced authorities to mobilize security forces across a broad expanse of western China.

In a sign that authorities were preparing for trouble, Associated Press and other foreign journalists were ordered out of the Tibetan parts of Gansu and Qinghai provinces by police who told them it was for their "safety."

Protesters told to surrender
Meanwhile, police in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, searched buildings as a Monday deadline loomed for people who took part in a violent anti-Chinese uprising last week to surrender or face severe punishment.

Tibet's governor Champa Phuntsok said Monday that 13 civilians were killed and dozens were wounded in violence that broke out in Lhasa on Friday. China's state media said earlier that 10 civilians were killed.

Speaking from India, the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetans, called for an international investigation into China's crackdown on demonstrators in Lhasa, which his exiled government claims left 80 people dead. China's state media has said 10 civilians were killed.

"Whether intentionally or unintentionally, some kind of cultural genocide is taking place," the Dalai Lama said, referring to an influx of Chinese migration into Tibetan areas and restrictions on Buddhist practices — policies that have generated deep resentment among Tibetans.

Showdown between police, monks
Tensions also boiled over outside the county seat of Aba in Sichuan province when armed police tried to stop Tibetan monks from protesting, according to a witness who refused to give his name.

The witness said a policeman had been killed and three or four police vans had been set on fire. Eight bodies were brought to a nearby monastery while others reported that up to 30 protesters had been shot, according to activist groups the Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy and the London-based Free Tibet Campaign. The claims could not be confirmed.

Sunday's demonstrations follow nearly a week of protests in Lhasa that escalated into violence Friday, with Tibetans attacking Chinese and torching their shops, in the longest and fiercest challenge to Chinese rule in nearly two decades.

AP In this image taken from ATV Hong Kong via APTN, a Chinese army truck deploys Sunday in Lhasa, capital of southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region.

Complicating Beijing's task, the spreading protests fall two weeks before China's celebrations for the Beijing Olympics kick off with the start of the torch relay, which will pass through Tibet.

Though many were small in scale, the widening Tibetan protests are forcing Beijing to pursue suppression from town to town and province to province across its vast western region. Sunday's lockdown in Tongren required police imported from other towns, the locals said.

The Chinese government attempted to control what the public saw and heard about protests that erupted Friday. Access to YouTube.com, usually readily available in China, was blocked after videos appeared on the site Saturday showing foreign news reports about the Lhasa demonstrations, montages of photos, and scenes from Tibet-related protests abroad.

Print this Email this Blog this  IM this

MORE FROM ASIA-PACIFIC

Asia-Pacific Section Front

WP: Crises cloud China's Olympic mood China aftershock triggers landslides After quake, 1-child policy causes pain Cyclone toll rises to almost 78,000 U.S. to send tons of food to North Korea Kangaroo cull revived in Australia U.S. Marine guilty of abuse in Japan Asia-Pacific Section Front   Add Asia-Pacific headlines to your news reader: