China tightens grip on Tibet

BEIJING — Soldiers on foot and in armored carriers swarmed Tibet’s capital yesterday, enforcing a strict curfew a day after protesters burned shops and cars to vent their anger against Chinese rule. In another western city, police clashed with hundreds of Buddhist monks leading a sympathy demonstration.

Foreign tourists were asked to leave Tibet yesterday, and witnesses said Lhasa looked like a ghost city after a day of violent protests Friday. Protesters were given until tomorrow to surrender to authorities or face criminal action.

China’s official Xinhua news agency reported at least 10 “innocent civilians” were burned to death Friday. The Dalai Lama’s exiled Tibetan government in India said Chinese authorities killed at least 30 Tibetans, including at least five by shooting, and as many as 100. The figures could not be independently verified. The Tibetan administration denied that the protesters came under fire.

Agence France-Presse reported that the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s spiritual leader, would speak to the world today, but observers did not expect the Nobel Peace Prize winner to deviate from his appeals for a nonviolent solution to the future of Tibet.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice yesterday urged the Chinese government to “exercise restraint” in responding to protests in Tibet and called for the release of detained monks, Agence France-Presse reported.

Miss Rice said she was “deeply saddened” that Friday’s protests “resulted in the loss of lives” and expressed concern “that the violence appears to be continuing.”

“I also am concerned by reports of a sharply increased police and military presence in and around Lhasa,” she said.

She called on China to “release monks and others who have been detained solely for the peaceful expression of their views.”

“We also urge China to address policies in Tibetan areas that have created tensions due to their impact on Tibetan religion, culture and livelihoods,” she said.

The violence erupted two weeks before China’s Summer Olympics celebrations kick off with the start of the torch relay, which passes through Tibet. China is gambling that its crackdown will not draw an international outcry over human rights violations that could lead to boycotts of the Olympics in August.

The unrest began Monday, the anniversary of a 1959 uprising against Chinese rule. Tibet was effectively independent for decades before communist troops entered in 1950.

Buddhist monks set off the protests by demanding the release of detained monks. Their demands spiraled to include cries for Tibet’s independence and turned violent Friday when police tried to stop a group of protesting monks. Pent-up grievances against Chinese rule came to the fore, as Tibetans directed their anger against Chinese and their shops, hotels and other businesses.

It was the fiercest challenge to Beijing’s authority in nearly two decades.

Meanwhile, China’s parliament today re-elected Wen Jiabao as the nation’s prime minister for five more years, Xinhua reported.

In Lhasa yesterday, police manned checkpoints and armored personnel carriers rattled on mostly empty streets as people stayed indoors under a curfew, witnesses said.

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