Security Tight in Tibet; Many Reported Seized

Thousands of Chinese police patrolled the Tibetan capital of Lhasa on foot and in trucks Thursday, and foreigners there said hundreds of people have been arrested in the past six days.

The anniversary of the outbreak of a bloody 1959 Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule passed Thursday without major incident, said foreigners in Lhasa contacted by telephone from the southwest China city of Chengdu.

More than 100 trucks carrying armed police drove through the main streets of the city of 150,000 in a show of force, and several dozen police with machine guns stood in front of the city’s holiest temple, the Jokhang, said Benjamin Watson, a tourist from New York City.

Watson, who speaks Tibetan, said an estimated 300 people have been arrested since a clash Saturday between police and Tibetans demanding independence.

Situation Called Normal

The official New China News Agency said the situation in Lhasa was normal Thursday. It said 100 top Tibetans gathered in Lhasa to denounce the riots and “those who conduct evil doings under the guise of lama (monks).”

Thousands of monks and lay Tibetans stoned police and lighted bonfires in the city Saturday at the close of a major prayer festival. It was the first major confrontation between Tibetans and Chinese authorities since a series of protests in September and October left at least 14 people dead.

Chinese authorities have said that two people--a policeman and a Tibetan--died in Saturday’s violence. Several foreign sources in Lhasa at the time estimated the deaths at eight. Watson said many Tibetans maintain that 24 people were killed, including 21 Tibetans and three policemen.

There was no way to confirm the figures.

Chinese authorities have not allowed foreign reporters to enter Lhasa this week.

Temple Reported Intact

Several travelers said they had been allowed to enter the 1,300-year-old Jokhang Temple on Wednesday and Thursday and did not see signs of fighting or damage. Police stormed the temple Saturday and Tibetan monks told Westerners in Lhasa that 16 of their colleagues had been killed there by police.

Saturday’s rioting began at the temple where monks had convened on the final day of the 10-day annual Great Prayer Festival. Monks shouted pro-independence and pro-Dalai Lama slogans and threw rocks at police.

March 10 is the 29th anniversary of a Tibetan revolt against Chinese rule that resulted in the flight of the Dalai Lama, spiritual leader of the Tibetans, and 100,000 followers, and a bloody crackdown by the Chinese army.

On that day in 1959, thousands of Tibetans surrounded the Norbulinka, the Dalai Lama’s summer palace in Lhasa, amid rumors that their god-king would be kidnaped by the Chinese army.

On March 17, the Dalai Lama fled from the palace and led his followers to exile in India. On March 20, the army attacked the palace and quashed the rebellion after three days of fighting.