Monks disrupt carefully orchestrated Tibet media tour

[Woodmonkey]

Monks disrupt carefully orchestrated Tibet media tour

LHASA, China — Dozens of Tibetan monks pleading for freedom disrupted a carefully orchestrated trip for foreign reporters into Tibet's capital Thursday. The outburst was an embarrassment for China while it was trying to show that Lhasa was calm after recent pro-independence riots.

Chinese officials had arranged the trip for journalists, including a USA TODAY reporter, after the violence in Lhasa and a subsequent government crackdown shattered China's plans for a peaceful run-up to the Beijing Olympics.

During a visit to the Jokhang Temple, one of Tibet's holiest shrines, at least 30 Tibetan monks in red robes interrupted an official briefing in an extraordinary outburst.

Some of them weeping, the monks shouted, "Do not believe them" and "Tibetans have no freedom." The briefing was immediately halted, and reporters were rushed to their buses.

The monks said their exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, had nothing to do with the riots by Tibetans, in which buildings were torched and looted and ethnic Han Chinese were attacked. The government has said the riots March 14 were masterminded by "the Dalai clique," Beijing's term for the Dalai Lama and his supporters.

Government handlers shouted for the journalists to leave and tried to pull them away during the protest.

"They want us to crush the Dalai Lama, and that is not right," one monk said during the 15-minute outburst, according to the Associated Press, who also had a reporter on the trip.

"This had nothing to do with the Dalai Lama," another said.

The Chinese government says 22 people died in the recent violence, while Tibetan exiles say the riots and the crackdown afterward have left nearly 140 people dead.

The monks, who first spoke Tibetan and then switched to Mandarin so the reporters could understand them, said they knew they would probably be arrested for their actions but were willing to accept that.

They had rushed over to stop the reporters from being taken into an inner sanctum of the temple, saying they were upset that a government administrator was telling the reporters that Tibet had been part of China for centuries.

They said troops who had been guarding the temple since March 14 were removed the night before the visit by the reporters. One monk said they were upset by monks planted in the monastery to talk to the journalists. He called them "not true believers but … Communist Party members."

"They are all officials, they (the government) arranged for them to come in. And we aren't allowed to go out because they say we could destroy things, but we never did anything," another monk said.

The protesting monks appeared to go back to their living quarters. There was no way of knowing immediately what happened to them.

The official Xinhua News Agency reported Thursday on the action by the monks but did not say what the monks yelled out. "The media tour soon resumed," Xinhua said.

Lhasa was under tight police control when the foreign reporters arrived in the city Wednesday for a two-day trip that was strictly supervised by Chinese officials.

Media access to Tibet has been restricted since the riots.

The violence has drawn international attention to China's human rights record and its treatment of Tibet's pro-independence protesters before the Beijing Olympics this summer.

Officials from China's Foreign Ministry discouraged the group of about 20 visiting journalists from deviating from the itinerary set by the government.

"You must stay with the group. Do not go out on your own. It is still not safe here," warned Foreign Ministry official Tang Rui upon the group's arrival at the airport in Lhasa.

A "wanted" poster at the airport showed the two suspected rioters most wanted by police.

A three-minibus convoy, flanked by official cars, took the journalists from the airport into Lhasa at a top speed of about 25 mph, meaning the trip took about 90 minutes — twice the usual duration.

Reporters pleaded for the convoy to move faster as cars whizzed past but were told the deliberate pace was for their own safety.

Several police roadblocks also interrupted the journey.

At the third checkpoint, a policeman said the roadblock had been set up to inspect travel documents because of the recent riots. His colleague Cun Luobu interrupted him and declared, "We are checking for people not wearing safety belts, for violating traffic rules and for having fake license plates."

The state-run hotel chosen for the trip is in western Lhasa, where China's ethnic majority — the Han — have built a city that resembles many others in China. Many Tibetans consider their region ethnically and historically distinct from the rest of the country.

Many shop fronts bore propaganda banners condemning the "separatists" who threaten China.

In the city's main Tibetan quarter, groups of paramilitary police carrying batons and riot shields were stationed on the city's many twisting back alleys, stopping all pedestrians and checking documents.

Because of the strong security presence, many residents said they were too scared to discuss the riots and subsequent crackdown.

At nightfall, the police presence increased. From about 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, groups of police marched around the areas that were worst hit by the riots.

By 10 p.m., there were many roadblocks on streets around the heavily Tibetan quarter of the city. None of the city's cabaret bars appeared to be open.

The Source