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Violent Tibet protests spead as fears of Tiananmen-style crackdown increase
Last updated at 00:52am on 17.03.08At least seven demonstrators were reported shot dead by police as Tibetan protests spread yesterday.
Police also fired tear gas at Buddhist monks after they raised the banned Tibetan flag over their monastery.
The clashes came two days after 80 people died in riots against the Chinese in the Tibetan capital Lhasa.
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Force: Chinese troops patrol the debris-strewn streets of Tibet's capital Lhasa
This time the violence was in China itself, in the province of Sichuan which borders Tibet and has a large Tibetan population.
Police said a crowd threw petrol bombs, burning down a police station and a market, and also torched two police cars and a fire appliance.
"They've gone crazy," said a police officer as a government building came under siege.
Security forces said they arrested five people, but the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy said paramilitary police had shot and killed at least seven people.
Troops also stormed Amdo Ngaba Kirti monastery in Sichuan after monks raised the Tibetan flag and shouted pro-independence slogans.
In Gansu, another neighbouring province, troops fired on hundreds of monks marching through the streets.
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Faith: A Tibetan refugee boy prays in Kathmandu, Nepal, as riots spread into China
Witnesses told of explosions, repeated gunfire and monks crackdown intensifies being beaten.
The violence dealt a sharp blow to Beijing's preparations for the Olympic Games in August.
There were fears that the leadership will order a heavy crackdown, echoing the horror of Tiananmen Square in 1989 when tanks and troops left thousands dead as they ended pro-democracy protests.
The Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetans, called for an investigation into whether cultural genocide was taking place.
"The Tibet nation is facing serious danger. Whether China's government admits it or not, there is a problem," he said from his headquarters in northern India – he fled Tibet in 1959.
The Dalai Lama, who says he only wants greater autonomy for his people, not full independence, said China deserves to host the Olympics but the international community has a "moral responsibility" to remind it to be a good host. Scroll down for more...
China, however, has declared a "people's war" of security and propaganda against support for the Dalai Lama, underlining that it will ignore calls for a lenient response to the riots.
Lhasa itself was sealed off to foreigners yesterday as troops patrolled in strength.
State-run China Central Television said social order had "basically been restored" in the Himalayan city, but showed footage of burnedout buildings and deserted streets choked with debris.
The television said one young girl had died because she could not jump from a burning building with the rest of her family.
The authorities have set rioters in Lhasa an ultimatum, urging them to surrender to police by midnight tonight and win possible clemency, or face harsh punishment.
Television reports in Hong Kong said an estimated 12,000 troops have been sent to the city.
In another indication that Beijing is trying to suppress news of the unrest, internet users in China were yesterday barred from visiting the YouTube website, which has dozens of videos of the Tibetan protests.
In Washington, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged China to "release monks and others detained solely for the peaceful expression of their views". Actor Richard Gere, chairman of the International Campaign for Tibet, said it would be "unconscionable" to attend the Beijing Olympics if China failed to deal peacefully with the unrest.
But Olympic chiefs urged the world not to boycott the Games.
In London, Tibetan exiles gathered outside the Chinese embassy to express their anger.
A bigger demonstration is expected today.
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