03-18-2008, 03:14 AM
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Audra Ang | Beijing
Pioneer.com
Tibet Governor again warns of stern action
Tibet's Governor denounced anti-Chinese protesters in Lhasa as criminals and vowed to bring them to justice as a midnight deadline loomed on Monday for them to turn themselves in. Â
More clashes erupted in other Chinese provinces.
Champa Phuntsok said the death toll from last week's violent demonstrations in the Tibetan Capital had risen to 16 and dozens were injured. The Dalai Lama's exiled Tibetan Government in India has said that 80 Tibetans were killed -- a claim Champa Phuntsok denied.
The uprising, the fiercest against Chinese rule in almost two decades, and its spread to other provinces have posed a challenge for the Communist Government as it prepares for the Beijing Summer Olympics, which were supposed to raise China's world standing. After a weekend in which witnesses said Lhasa echoed with gunfire and armed police shut down the city to reimpose order, Champa Phuntsok steered a line between sounding reassuring and being tough. He told mediapersons security forces "did not carry or use any lethal weapons," but promised that authorities would deal harshly with rioters who defy the surrender notice.
"No country would allow those offenders or criminals to escape the arm of justice and China is no exception," said Champa Phuntsok, an ethnic Tibetan.
"If these people turn themselves in, they will be treated with leniency within the framework of the law," he said. Otherwise, he added, "we will deal with them harshly."
The Washington-based International Campaign for Tibet said residents feared a military sweep after the midnight deadline. Authorities paraded handcuffed Tibetan prisoners in Lhasa on Monday, The Times of London reported in its online edition. The report said four trucks in a convoy drove through the city with 40 people, mostly young Tibetan men and women, standing in the back, their wrists handcuffed and a soldier behind each one holding the prisoner's head bowed.
Going house-to-house, police checked identity cards and residence permits, detaining anyone without permission to stay in Lhasa, The Times said.
On Monday, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice again called on China to exercise restraint and said Beijing should find a way to engage the Dalai Lama, who has been accused of helping organise the protest.
"There's been a kind of missed opportunity for the Chinese to engage the Dalai Lama," Rice said, adding that the spiritual leader is not a separatist and could "lend his moral weight" to reaching a more stable arrangement in Tibet.
But Russia said it hopes China's Government "will take all necessary measures to stop illegal actions and provide for the swiftest possible normalisation of the situation<b>." The Foreign Ministry also said that any efforts to boycott the Beijing Olympics were "unacceptable."</b>
<b>European Union nations and Olympic committees also echoed their opposition to a boycott of the Beijing Games over China's handling of the Tibet protests, saying sports should not be linked to politics.</b>
<b>"Under no circumstance will we support the boycott. We are 100 per cent unanimous," Patrick Hickey, head of the European Olympic Committees, said in an interview with The Associated Press. "Not one Government leader has called for a boycott. A boycott is only a punishment of the athletes."</b>
<b>Australia's Olympic Committee also objected to any boycott over human rights concerns.</b>
While Lhasa was still swarming with troops, more security forces were mobilising across western China's mountain valleys and broad plains to deal with sympathy protests in Tibetan communities in the provinces of Gansu, Sichuan and Qinghai.
In Gansu's Maqu county, which borders Sichuan, thousands of monks and ordinary Tibetans clashed with police on Monday in various locations, police and a Tibet rights group said.
"We have nothing to protect ourselves and we can't fight back," said an officer at the county police headquarters who refused to give his name or other details. He said about 10 policemen were injured.
In the city of Lanzhou, about 500 Tibetan students who gathered on Sunday on the Northwest Minorities University abandoned an overnight vigil.
The Government also began to tighten its already firm hold on information.
Officials expelled foreign mediapersons from Tibetan areas in Qinghai and Gansu provinces, contravening regulations that opened most of China to foreign media for the Olympics.
Some of the few independent media remaining in Lhasa were also ordered out, making it difficult to verify casualties and other details.
Police in Lhasa kicked out mediapersons from three Hong Kong television stations -- Cable TV, TVB and ATV -- and made TVB delete footage of Friday's violence, TVB reported..Â
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Audra Ang | Beijing
Pioneer.com
Tibet Governor again warns of stern action
Tibet's Governor denounced anti-Chinese protesters in Lhasa as criminals and vowed to bring them to justice as a midnight deadline loomed on Monday for them to turn themselves in. Â
More clashes erupted in other Chinese provinces.
Champa Phuntsok said the death toll from last week's violent demonstrations in the Tibetan Capital had risen to 16 and dozens were injured. The Dalai Lama's exiled Tibetan Government in India has said that 80 Tibetans were killed -- a claim Champa Phuntsok denied.
The uprising, the fiercest against Chinese rule in almost two decades, and its spread to other provinces have posed a challenge for the Communist Government as it prepares for the Beijing Summer Olympics, which were supposed to raise China's world standing. After a weekend in which witnesses said Lhasa echoed with gunfire and armed police shut down the city to reimpose order, Champa Phuntsok steered a line between sounding reassuring and being tough. He told mediapersons security forces "did not carry or use any lethal weapons," but promised that authorities would deal harshly with rioters who defy the surrender notice.
"No country would allow those offenders or criminals to escape the arm of justice and China is no exception," said Champa Phuntsok, an ethnic Tibetan.
"If these people turn themselves in, they will be treated with leniency within the framework of the law," he said. Otherwise, he added, "we will deal with them harshly."
The Washington-based International Campaign for Tibet said residents feared a military sweep after the midnight deadline. Authorities paraded handcuffed Tibetan prisoners in Lhasa on Monday, The Times of London reported in its online edition. The report said four trucks in a convoy drove through the city with 40 people, mostly young Tibetan men and women, standing in the back, their wrists handcuffed and a soldier behind each one holding the prisoner's head bowed.
Going house-to-house, police checked identity cards and residence permits, detaining anyone without permission to stay in Lhasa, The Times said.
On Monday, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice again called on China to exercise restraint and said Beijing should find a way to engage the Dalai Lama, who has been accused of helping organise the protest.
"There's been a kind of missed opportunity for the Chinese to engage the Dalai Lama," Rice said, adding that the spiritual leader is not a separatist and could "lend his moral weight" to reaching a more stable arrangement in Tibet.
But Russia said it hopes China's Government "will take all necessary measures to stop illegal actions and provide for the swiftest possible normalisation of the situation<b>." The Foreign Ministry also said that any efforts to boycott the Beijing Olympics were "unacceptable."</b>
<b>European Union nations and Olympic committees also echoed their opposition to a boycott of the Beijing Games over China's handling of the Tibet protests, saying sports should not be linked to politics.</b>
<b>"Under no circumstance will we support the boycott. We are 100 per cent unanimous," Patrick Hickey, head of the European Olympic Committees, said in an interview with The Associated Press. "Not one Government leader has called for a boycott. A boycott is only a punishment of the athletes."</b>
<b>Australia's Olympic Committee also objected to any boycott over human rights concerns.</b>
While Lhasa was still swarming with troops, more security forces were mobilising across western China's mountain valleys and broad plains to deal with sympathy protests in Tibetan communities in the provinces of Gansu, Sichuan and Qinghai.
In Gansu's Maqu county, which borders Sichuan, thousands of monks and ordinary Tibetans clashed with police on Monday in various locations, police and a Tibet rights group said.
"We have nothing to protect ourselves and we can't fight back," said an officer at the county police headquarters who refused to give his name or other details. He said about 10 policemen were injured.
In the city of Lanzhou, about 500 Tibetan students who gathered on Sunday on the Northwest Minorities University abandoned an overnight vigil.
The Government also began to tighten its already firm hold on information.
Officials expelled foreign mediapersons from Tibetan areas in Qinghai and Gansu provinces, contravening regulations that opened most of China to foreign media for the Olympics.
Some of the few independent media remaining in Lhasa were also ordered out, making it difficult to verify casualties and other details.
Police in Lhasa kicked out mediapersons from three Hong Kong television stations -- Cable TV, TVB and ATV -- and made TVB delete footage of Friday's violence, TVB reported..Â
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