Death toll in Tibet protests rises
'State of siege' in capital city injures dozens China threatens harsh response
BEIJING - Hundreds of protesters swarmed Tibet's capital yesterday, clashing with police and setting fire to shops and cars in a spasm of violence worse than any there in nearly 20 years.
Doctors reported dozens of injured streaming into hospitals, and there were reports of several deaths as Lhasa descended into what one witness called "a state of siege."
China's Xinhua News Agency said seven people have been confirmed dead and that "most of the victims were business people," Reuters reported. Xinhua earlier said no foreigners had been hurt in the violence.
By nightfall, armored personnel carriers had rolled into the center of the city. "The army is everywhere," said one hotel worker, who added that he was afraid to go outside.
The violence occurred after five days of escalating protests against Chinese rule in the remote mountainous region, the heart of Tibetan Buddhism. The confrontations, initially led by monks, were joined yesterday by hundreds of Tibetan civilians, who began attacking shops owned by ethnic Han and Hui Chinese.
Street fights between Tibetans and Chinese continued into the night, according to reports from the region.
The crisis exposed the anger Tibetans have long felt but rarely were able to express openly over Chinese domination. Although ethnic Chinese are a minority in Tibet, they are far better off economically. Tibetans also resent efforts by Beijing to bind their homeland to the rest of the country - including the recent opening of a luxury train line to funnel tourists to Lhasa.
The Chinese government must now confront a significant political challenge as it prepares to host the 2008 Olympic Games in August. Authorities have steadfastly attempted to project an image of harmony and stability in Tibet and elsewhere even as they have tightened their grip over the region.
In some of the strongest words yet from officials, Champa Phunstok, regional Tibet government head, warned early today that the authorities will "deal harshly with these criminals who are carrying out activities to split the nation," the Associated Press reported.
The protests, which began Monday in Lhasa, spread yesterday - not only in Lhasa but elsewhere. Up to 4,000 ethnic Tibetans marched in the northwestern Chinese province of Gansu. A Tibetan rights group reported that that protest had also turned violent.
In India, police clashed with scores of pro-Tibet protesters near the Chinese Embassy in New Delhi, arresting dozens of them. Police scuffled with about 1,000 protesters, including dozens of Buddhist monks, during a rally in Nepal's capital of Katmandu in support of demonstrators in Tibet. About 12 monks were injured.
Images captured on cellphone cameras and posted on the Internet showed protesters burning Chinese flags and running through the streets of Lhasa shouting independence slogans.
The pictures also revealed how the once-small city, home to several of the most sacred sites of Tibetan Buddhism, has been transformed by years of intense development, often benefiting the Han Chinese who have settled there in the tens of thousands.
"This spiraling unrest has triggered the scenario the Chinese prayed would not happen," said Robbie Barnett, director of modern Tibetan studies at Columbia University. "They have left no one in place with any credibility who can come out on the streets and talk to these people."
The US Embassy in Beijing, citing "firsthand reports" of gunfire in Lhasa, issued an alert that warned tourists in the city to stay inside and avoid "unnecessary movements."
China heavily restricts travel to Tibet, making it difficult to independently verify developments there. Sources reached by phone declined to identify themselves for fear of government reprisal.
A doctor at the Tibet Autonomous Region People's Hospital said he had received 41 wounded. An official at the People's Hospital of Lhasa said there were many wounded there, but gave no details. The wounded continued coming as night fell even after police imposed a curfew, one doctor said.
European Union leaders urged China to show restraint. A White House spokesman said Beijing "needs to respect Tibetan culture" and "needs to have a dialogue with the Dalai Lama," the Tibetan spiritual leader, whom the Chinese have accused of inciting the protests.
The Dalai Lama, who lives in exile in India, issued a statement accusing China of using brute force to impose its culture on Tibetans. "These protests are a manifestation of the deep-rooted resentment of the Tibetan people under the present governance," he said. "I, therefore, appeal to the Chinese leadership to stop using force and address the long-simmering resentment."
The Tibet government called the violence an act of sabotage that had been "organized, premeditated, and masterminded by the Dalai clique," the government-controlled New China News Agency reported.
Tibetan exile groups and activists have vowed to intensify their "Free Tibet" campaigns in the run-up to the Olympics.
