Beijing sends top officials to inspect Lhasa
China's top security, religion and united-front work officials visited Lhasa on Sunday and Monday amid reports of fresh protests, a sign of ongoing unrest despite a heavy presence of security forces.
State Councillor Meng Jianzhu , who also heads the Public Security Ministry, visited Lhasa to inspect restoration work and social order after the city was rocked by the worst rioting in almost 20 years, Xinhua reported.
Mr Meng was the first high-level central government official to visit Lhasa since the March 14 riots, which Beijing said killed 18 civilians and one police officer.
He was accompanied by a special task-force comprising Ye Xiaowen , the religious affairs minister; Zhu Weiqun, deputy director of the United Front Work Department; Lieutenant General Lu Dengming, deputy commander of Chengdu Military Command; and Lieutenant General Huo Yi, deputy commander of the People's Armed Police.
Mr Meng ordered Tibet's security forces to remain on alert, saying 'the situation of the battle to fight separatists remains critical'.
'The Dalai clique refuse to give up their evil designs, and even in their death throes are planning new acts of sabotage,' Mr Meng was quoted as saying.
He vowed stricter management of Tibetan Buddhists. 'Patriotic education and religion and law education' campaigns would be strengthened in monasteries, he said.
'Tibetan Buddhist culture is an important part of Chinese civilisation,' Mr Meng said. 'But any religion must act within the bounds of the constitution and the law, and not interfere in administration, the judiciary, education and so on.'
Tibetan authorities yesterday announced 13 people had been formally arrested in Lhasa on Monday over a March 10 protest outside the Jokhang Temple, Tibet's most sacred shrine. Another 29 people involved in the March 14 riots had also been formally arrested by yesterday afternoon, Xinhua reported.
The 13 chanted 'reactionary slogans' and carried a 'reactionary flag' - the snow-lion flag of independent Tibet - the agency said. On the same day, 300 protesters marched from the Drepung Monastery outside Lhasa, and tried to continue to the Potala Palace in the city centre. The protests marked the anniversary of a failed uprising against Beijing's rule in 1959, which forced the Dalai Lama into exile.
The protest touched off further unrest across neighbouring provinces populated by ethnic Tibetans.
Beijing has said the situation is under control and that life has returned to normal, although state media yesterday reported a police officer was killed in riots.
Wang Guochuan was killed when protesters attacked police with knives and stones in the Ganzi Tibetan prefecture in Sichuan province , Xinhua said. Several other officers were wounded in the clash.
'The police were forced to fire warning shots and disperse' the protesters, the report said. It did not say whether the attackers were Tibetan or if any protesters were hurt or killed.
But in a separate report, the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy, an exile group, said that at least one Tibetan protester was shot dead and another left in critical condition after police fired on the crowd.
Some 200 protesters, including monks and nuns, marched on the township government office, it said.
