https://www.guardian.co.uk/world/200...6/tibet.china2

Rule of terror: Dalai Lama accuses China as dozens are reported dead
· Riot police crack down on spreading protests
· Exiled leader voices fear of 'cultural genocide'
Jonathan Watts in Xining and Randeep Ramesh in Delhi
guardian.co.uk, Sunday March 16 2008
Article history


Link to this video https://www.guardian.co.uk/world/vid...16/xiahe.gansu

The Dalai Lama accused China of a "rule of terror" today as the violent unrest - which has reportedly claimed dozens of lives - spread to at least two neighbouring provinces.

In Aba county, Sichuan province, protesters attacked a police station with petrol bombs and fought street battles with riot police. There were unconfirmed reports of fatal shootings.

"It's chaos out there. I am too afraid to leave my home," a resident told the Guardian. "They have been burning, smashing, looting and beating."

A police officer said the mob had burned down a market, a police station, two police cars and a fire engine. "They've gone crazy," he told the Reuters news agency.

According to the Free Tibet Campaign, police shot and killed 13 people. It provided the name of one victim, Lobsang Tashi. Three locals contacted today were unable to confirm fatalities, but said the situation near Langmu monastery was serious, though the streets were now filled with police and calmer than earlier.

In Qinghai, large numbers of riot police moved to quell a disturbance near Rebkong monastery in Tongren county. A former soldier with contacts in the army said he had been warned not to visit the area. "There is trouble there. It is too dangerous."

Roads to the area were lined with checkpoints. Returning reporters said they had seen no sign of violence, but monks had told them the monastery was surrounded by snipers and they were under orders to remove pictures of the Dalai Lama from the temples. A Tibetan who answered the phone at the Rebkong monastery confirmed there had been fighting.

The police declined to answer questions. A local government officer said it was "not convenient" to talk, but the situation was "not bad".

Further north in Gansu province, trucks filled with riot police were seen moving towards Labrung monastery in Xiahe. Thousands of Tibetans had taken to the streets during the previous two days. There were unconfirmed reports of four deaths.

In Lhasa, China's Xinhua news agency said life was returning to normal and some shops had reopened, but residents spoke of an uneasy calm as the streets remained locked-down by large numbers of paramilitary police and armoured personnel carriers.

The city is sealed off to tourists and many foreign residents have left. Internet and mobile phone communications have been disrupted.

The overall picture remains confused, partly because of information and travel restrictions imposed by the Chinese government, and partly because the protests are taking place across an area that is bigger than western Europe.

There are sharply conflicting estimates of the death toll. The Chinese government has confirmed only 10 fatalities, most of whom it described as "innocent civilians" who burned to death in fires set by Tibetan "vandals". In addition, it says 12 policemen were seriously injured.

However, the Tibetan government in exile in Dharamsala, northern India, said it had confirmed reports of 80 deaths and 72 injuries. Most of the casualties, it said, were Tibetan protesters shot by police.

"The Tibet nation is facing serious danger. Whether China's government admits or not, there is a problem," the Dalai Lama told reporters in Dharamsala.

Tibet's spiritual leader - who fled into exile after a failed uprising in 1959 - accused Beijing of a "rule of terror" and called for an international investigation into whether cultural genocide was taking place in his homeland.

The United Nations has called for an end to the violence. The US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, in a statement, urged Beijing to "release monks and others who have been detained solely for the peaceful expression of their views".

Britain called on China to exercise restraint. In a Radio 4 interview, Lord Malloch Brown, the Foreign Office minister, said China would pay a terrible cost in international public opinion if it was seen to crack down violently on dissidents ahead of the Olympics.

The International Olympic Committee said it shared "the world's desire for a peaceful resolution to the tensions of past days in the Tibetan region of China".

The state media declared a "people's war" of security and propaganda against the Dalai Lama, whom China accuses of orchestrating the unrest. Authorities in Lhasa said harsh punishment would be meted out to rioters who failed to hand themselves into the police by tonight.