Published on March 20, 2008

China says opened fire on Tibetan protesters

Police 'shot at Tibet protesters'

Chinese police opened fire and wounded four protesters "in self-defence" last Sunday in a Tibetan area of Sichuan province, the Xinhua news agency says.

It is the first time China has admitted injuring anyone since anti-Chinese protests in Tibet began last week. An earlier Xinhua report had said the police had shot dead four rioters, but it was quickly corrected. Xinhua said police opened fire in Aba county - the same place that Tibetan activists said eight people were killed during protests near Kirti monastery.

Activists released graphic photos of dead bodies showing bullet wounds.

The Tibetan government in exile has said at least 99 people have died so far, including 80 in Lhasa - and have accused the security forces of firing on crowds. (BBC)

China says opened fire on Tibetan protesters

Chinese police opened fire and wounded four protesters earlier this week in unrest in a Tibetan town, its first admission that lethal weapons were used by its security forces to crack down on anti-government demonstrations.

Citing police sources, the state-run Xinhua news agency said on Thursday that police acted in self-defence when they fired on protesters on Sunday in Aba county, an ethnic Tibetan part of the western province of Sichuan.

Exiled Tibetan groups say as many as 100 Tibetans have died. (Reuters)

UN calls for restraint in Tibet

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has called on both Chinese forces and demonstrators in Tibet to show restraint after days of rioting.

Mr Ban urged "a peaceful resolution", but made it clear there were no plans for UN intervention.

Russia's UN Ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, said Tibet was "not a matter for the Security Council". His country - a veto-wielding permanent member like China - is chairing the council this month. (BBC)

China pours troops into Tibet

Thousands of soldiers were seen in Lhasa on Thursday amid reports of a huge military build-up, as the Dalai Lama expressed fears China's crackdown on Tibetan protesters had caused many casualties.

Long military convoys were on the move in Tibet while troops also poured into nearby provinces, after a week of violent unrest against China's rule of the Himalayan region, witnesses, activist groups and media reports said.

"We saw a big convoy of military vehicles with troops in the back," German journalist Georg Blume said from the Tibetan capital Lhasa early Thursday. "One convoy was about two kilometres (1.2 miles) long and contained about 200 trucks. Each had 30 soldiers on board so that's about 6,000 military personnel in one convoy."

Germany's Blume was ordered out of Lhasa on Thursday, and there are now believed to be no more foreign reporters in the capital. (AFP)

Photos of the massacre in Tibet

Although denied by Beijing, the violent repression of the demonstrators and Tibetan monks is illustrated by a series of particularly violent photos, sent to the West by Tibetan dissidents. These are particularly harsh images, sent from the monastery of Kirti.

The photos were taken last March 16, in the autonomous Tibetan province of Amdo, which currently is part of the northern Chinese province of Sichuan.

According to the Free Tibet Campaign, the massacre began after the religious of the monastery of Kirti chanted slogans in favour of "free Tibet" and the Dalai Lama. The monks were joined by 400 Buddhist nuns and the students of the local Tibetan middle school. The Chinese police, which had been watching the monastery since the beginning of the protests (last March 10), opened fire on the crowd.

According to information from the Tibetan government in exile, about 20,000 Tibetans of Sichuan have protested in solidarity with the Tibetan monks.

Of the 20 certified victims of the repression, 9 have been identified: among these are young men of 15 and 17 years old. (AsiaNews)

China cracks down on protest news

China has been aggressively censoring international media in an attempt to lock down information about the violent demonstrations in Tibet's capital, Lhasa.

In recent days, TV broadcasts have been blacked out, websites blocked or censored by China's keyword filtering system and reporters on the ground prevented from reaching the region.

However, while there are strong efforts to stem the flow of information, the proliferation of blogs, chatrooms and mobile phones has helped information about Tibetan protests to stream out. (BBC)

Hundreds in Rome Protest Tibet Crackdown; Pope Calls for Dialogue

Hundreds of people turned out in Rome Wednesday to demonstrate in support of the people of Tibet following last week's unrest and a crackdown by the Chinese authorities.

A large banner on the stage in Rome's Campo de' Fiori Square read: "We are all Tibetans." Hundreds of people gathered Wednesday afternoon to show solidarity with the Tibetan people and voice their opposition to the brutal crackdown carried out by the Chinese authorities.

Maurizio Gasparri of the right-wing National Alliance said China applies the death penalty, exploits workers, and massacres people in Tibet and yet we are still talking about holding the Olympic Games in Beijing. He said China should not be part of the international community if it does not respect the rights of Tibetans.

Pope Benedict also raised his voice Wednesday. At the general audience, the pope said he is following events in Tibet with trepidation. He said his heart feels pain for the suffering of so many people. He said violence only aggravates problems. (VOA)