Police troops were then deployed to maintain peace and order with minimum use of force. A number of troublemakers were arrested for questioning.

If this happened in any western state, the rioters would be lambasted and the police would be praised. But it happened in China, and the western media instantly blamed Beijing for the violation of human rights.

What is it saying - that in the name of human rights, people can loot and kill, but the government has no right to put an end to such violence and safeguard its innocent civilians? Surely, this is a double standard.

In Tibet, almost 40 per cent of the Tibetan population comprises monks, who pray and study in pursuit of spiritual enlightenment.

The other 60 per cent are mainly farmers tilling infertile land, not only to make a meagre living, but also to support these non-productive monks. In recent years, generous subsidies from Beijing and government-funded infrastructure projects have significantly improved the well-being of the average Tibetan. As a result, Tibetans are less dependent on spiritual solace from the monasteries, and the monks may feel that their influence is waning and that they are not revered as much as before.

This may partly explain why some monks helped instigate the unrest.

Bashing China is popular these days.

As the Olympics draws near, more of these incidents may occur. I hope the central government can overcome all the obstacles it faces in this regard and eventually host a successful Games.

Nigel Ng, Happy Valley

A witness to suffering

I refer to Tony Chan's letter ('Questioning death toll', April 3), in reply to my letter ('Tibetans' views are clear', April 1), asking if I have been to Tibet and where I got my 'vague' statistics on what I described as cultural genocide. Yes, I have been to Tibet. I have also been to Germany, but that was not necessary to learn of the horrors of the second world war.

I have also been on treks in Nepal 14 times, often along the Tibetan border. There I met Tibetan refugees, people so desperate that they escaped to one of the poorest places on Earth, Nepal, a country where a few friends and I support seven children and help orphaned street kids at a Buddhist-run hostel in Kathmandu.

People don't risk death fleeing across the frozen Himalaya to a life of intense deprivation if they have a better choice at home. According to the UN, around 3,000 Tibetans arrive in Nepal each year. There are more than 120,000 in India.

There have been damning reports condemning China's actions in Tibet from the UN, the US Senate, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and others, along with information laboriously compiled by 35 major Tibetan support groups around the world and the Tibetan government in exile.

Ultimately most statistics on the oppression of Tibet can only come from Tibetans themselves, as no figures are available from China and no independent research or press freedom is allowed.

The statistics I gave are posted on the Free Tibet website and can be found in Tibet: Human Rights and the Rule of Law, published in 1997 by the International Commission of Jurists, and in Tibet: Proving Truth from Facts, published by the Central Tibetan Administration in Dharamsala. Even if the numbers quoted are 'vaguely' less or slightly more, the cynical oppression of Tibet remains a monumental outrage.

Peter Sherwood, Discovery Bay

Heavy-handed torch guards

The mainland Olympic organisers have made a rod for their own back, in parading the Olympic torch around the world.

The strong protests in London were only a taste of what was to come.

It was shocking to see that a dozen tracksuited Chinese strong-arm men were allowed by the London police to manhandle British protesters there.

It is an outrage that those flown-in Chinese heavies were able to do that in a free country like Britain. And how ironic that these same strong-arm, anti-protest guys wore the Olympic tracksuit, since the Olympics are supposed to represent free competition and peace.

Mary Pang, Kwai Chung

ESF has unfair privileges

The elimination of racism is the responsibility of education. Fiona Bishop's letter ('Majority of ESF students are local', April 4), causes concern about how the English Schools Foundation (and ESF parents) educates its pupils about racial integration and equality.

The ESF's admission policy overtly discriminates against Cantonese speakers. It has a curriculum that shuns Cantonese, the official spoken language of Hong Kong. Ms Bishop's assertion, that the majority of ESF's students are local and Asian (which is different from local Asian), does not detract from the fact that there is only a token presence of local Cantonese speakers in the ESF's student body - especially among its primary schools on Hong Kong Island. How may ESF students understand the designation of the lowest admission priority to Cantonese applicants? Is it necessary to guarantee equal right or unfair privileges? Local English-medium schools do not discriminate against applicants on language grounds.

How may ESF students rationalise the one-sided relationship which means only they have the right to benefit from Hong Kong's subsidised education, but not the obligation to support the language used by 95 per cent of Hong Kong's people in everyday life?

Anna Tse, Central Mid-Levels

A plea to all Muslims

It was good to see that the Muslim community in Hong Kong held a peaceful demonstration against the Dutch MP who posted an anti-Islam film on the internet. This is in stark contrast with demonstrations like the one in Indonesia, where, in similar demonstrations, threats were made against the MP [Geert Wilders].

During the Hong Kong protest, the Muslim community also asked for people to show respect for its religion. I think this is a respect that it deserves.

However, in order for the Muslim community to show it sincerely respects other religions, I hope its members will march to the Saudi Arabian consulate some weekend soon and demand that the Bible is allowed to be taken in to that country, and that we can build churches there - just as nations all over the world allow mosques to be built (there is a huge mosque next to the Vatican) and the Koran is freely available. The weekend after that they could march towards the Indonesian consulate in remembrance of all the people (mostly Chinese) who were slaughtered by Indonesians rioting just after the fall of former president Suharto. They suffered this fate just because they were not Muslims.

By joining such marches, the Muslim community will be showing that it means what it says.

Jeffry Kuperus, Clear Water Bay