In China’s west, life goes on after Tibet riots

updated 3:19 p.m. ET April 7, 2008

XIAHE, China - The five-table restaurant is empty except for two men slurping noodles. In the tiny kitchen, the Tibetan owner is steaming dumplings, one of the few things readily available on the menu.

"Not many people come in anymore," says the owner's 19-year-old daughter, apologizing for not having much food on hand since anti-Chinese protests and an ensuing police clampdown in this historic Tibetan town. "They are too scared to leave their homes much."

Three weeks after anti-government protests led by Buddhist monks spread across western China, police checkpoints and roadblocks have mostly disappeared. Smashed panes of glass in shops and government buildings attacked by demonstrators have been replaced and businesses have reopened.

Despite the signs that life has returned to normal, a trip through Tibetan communities in Gansu and Qinghai provinces showed that unease remains pervasive. Some towns resemble armed encampments and residents worry about fresh violence. Monks say local authorities have stepped up their watch and warned them not to talk about what happened.

In Gansu's Xiahe, where more than 1,000 monks and lay Tibetans staged two days of protests and attacked government buildings, trucks with riot police carrying shields, batons and 5-foot-long wooden poles regularly rumble into town. Paramilitary police perform drills in the town square — their shouts an odd counterpoint to the prayer chants at the Labrang monastery.

On the main street, official notices stamped in red ink and posted on shop fronts and walls urge people to surrender for taking part in the March 14-15 unrest.

"It was so frightening the day those things happened. We just hid in here. We could hear glass breaking," says the restaurant owner's daughter, who lives at the eatery with her mother and sister and like others interviewed did not want her name used for fear of government retaliation. "I'm still scared although things have calmed down a bit."

Riot police staff checkpoints
To the south, in the town of Hezuo, it's much the same. Hundreds of Tibetans — among them nomads on horseback whirling lassos — stormed a government compound three weeks ago shouting "Free Tibet!" They raised the Tibetan national flag banned in China above a school yard.

Now, pilgrims turn prayer wheels and prostrate before the main Buddhist temple as a dozen riot police check vehicles at the main crossroads. At night, a convoy of police vans patrol the empty streets, lights flashing.

The region — mountainous, arid and undeveloped — has for centuries been the blurry frontier between Tibet and China. Tibetans, Chinese and various Muslim groups are long accustomed to uneasy coexistence.

The government has released little information about the protests in western China and the police actions that followed. The protests started in Tibet's regional capital, Lhasa, and the government said 22 people died there. It has not given a tally for casualties elsewhere.

Groups associated with the government-in-exile of the Tibetan Buddhist leader, the Dalai Lama, have said at least 19 Tibetans died in Gansu, where Xiahe and Hezuo are.

But Beijing's tight grip on information makes independent confirmation difficult. After the protests, authorities kicked out foreign media and sealed the region behind a barricade of police checkpoints that only recently began to ease.

Monks stay mum on riots
On Friday, a festive air pervaded in Labrang as Tibetans — including the elderly and mothers clutching babies — crammed a courtyard for an annual rite where monks spray holy water onto the crowd to heal physical ailments. Close to noon, about 10 monks appeared, taking sips from bowls and spraying the water through their mouths onto the people, who raised their faces in anticipation. The group then dispersed.

Later in the day, monks fingered prayer beads, hailed taxis and playfully jostled each other on the streets. They said things were fine but shook their heads or walked away when asked about the March riots.

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