Chinese Police Reportedly Restore Calm, Arrest Dozens After Tibet Riot

Chinese police restored an uneasy calm in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa on Monday as hundreds of police sealed off the center of the city and made dozens of arrests in a crackdown following anti-Chinese rioting that left at least nine dead and 28 injured, Western sources in Lhasa said.

Contacted by telephone, the sources said authorities had mounted a security sweep and made the arrests, while police took up positions around the Jokhang Temple, the site of the protest.

Western diplomats in Beijing said that Saturday’s pro-independence protest embarrassed China at a time when Foreign Minister Wu Xueqian is in Washington to hold key talks with U.S. officials and that this could lead to a toughening of China’s policies in the region.

“This obviously is a loss of face,” said one diplomat in Beijing.

For Beijing, it is an old dilemma--how to gain Tibetan acceptance of Chinese rule while at the same time maintaining control over the remote mountainous region.

Foreign witnesses said at least nine people died in the disturbance, including at least one Buddhist monk and three policemen. Official reports, however, said one policeman was killed and 28 other people were injured.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Charles Redman said: “We remain deeply concerned about the state of human rights in Tibet and the renewed incidents of violence. We urge all concerned to exercise restraint in order to avoid further bloodshed.”

China’s official newspaper, the People’s Daily, quoted Tibet’s Public Security Bureau Chief Lang Jie as saying that the disturbances in Lhasa began when “separatists” infiltrated a crowd of Buddhist monks on the final day of a 10-day prayer festival.