Crackdown in Tibet

Chinese security forces are parading arrested Tibetan protestors through the streets as a warning:

The Chinese army drove through the streets of Lhasa today parading dozens of Tibetan prisoners in handcuffs, their heads bowed, as troops stepped up their hunt for the rioters in house-to-house searches.

As the midnight deadline approached for rioters to surrender, four trucks in convoy made a slow progress along main roads, with about 40 people, mostly young Tibetan men and women, standing with their wrists handcuffed behind their backs, witnesses said.

A soldier stood behind each prisoner, a hand on the back of their neck to ensure their heads were bowed.

Loudspeakers on the trucks broadcast calls to anyone who had taken part in the violent riots on Friday - in which Han Chinese and Hui Muslim were stabbed and beaten and shops and business set on fire - to turn themselves in.

Those who gave themselves up might be treated with leniency, the rest would face severe punishment, the broadcasts said.

The protests have spread to other regions of China:

Hundreds of Tibetan protesters with petrol bombs have destroyed a police station and police vehicles in a Tibetan region of Sichuan province, marking a dramatic new escalation of the violence that began in Lhasa last week, reports said last night.

At least seven Tibetan protesters in Sichuan were killed by paramilitary police, who opened fire on the crowd of pro-independence demonstrators yesterday, according to a Tibetan rights group. The report was unconfirmed and police denied it.

In another Tibetan region, in Gansu province, at least eight people were killed when police opened fire on 5,000 anti-China protesters yesterday, Radio Free Asia reported.

On Saturday, at least 1,000 Tibetans protested against Chinese rule in Gansu, destroying some government offices, and police fired tear gas to disperse them, according to Tibetan activist groups.

Lhasa, where the protests began last week, remains sealed off to the outside world. At least 10 people, and perhaps up to 80, were killed there on Friday when Tibetans rioted, clashing with police and torching Chinese shops.

Lhasa was reported to be relatively calm yesterday, with most residents ordered to stay inside their homes. Foreign tourists were evicted from the city or barred from entering for "safety reasons."

More here, including video.

Damian P.

Posted by damian at March 17, 2008 07:49 AM