Ten killed in Tibet riots, says China

The victims include two hotel employees and two shop owners, the report said.

No foreigner was among the dead, it said, a day after the widespread violence rocked the mountainous capital following the largest demonstrations in two decades.

“We have not received any report that foreigners suffered injuries or death in the beating, smashing, looting and burning on Friday (yesterday),” an official with the Foreign Affairs Office of the regional government said.

Violent protests came ahead of the August 8-24 Beijing Olympics, which human rights organisations want to link with improvement in the Communist nation’s rights situation and have been pressing the West to take up the issue with China.

China accused the groups associated with the Dalai Lama of having ‘masterminded’ the violence in Lhasa.

The government of Tibet Autonomous Region said it had ‘enough evidence’ to back its claim of ‘sabotage’ and that it was ‘organised, premeditated and masterminded’ by the Dalai ‘clique’.

“We are fully capable of maintaining social stability of Tibet and safeguarding the safety of the people of all ethnic groups in Tibet and their properties”, a regional government official said.

Lhasa streets remained virtually deserted today with not much traffic and burnt cars, motorcycles and bicycles strewn all over, and smoke billowing from them, witnesses said.

Traffic control was imposed on major streets to maintain order.

Power supply resumed in quarters along Duosenge Road, the worst-hit area in downtown Lhasa, but local phone service had not been restored as the communications infrastructure was destroyed in yesterday’s violence, Xinhua said.

Quoting witnesses, it said, the trouble began in the afternoon on Friday and people clashed with police and stoned them around the Ramogia Monastery.

Violence soon spread near the Ramogia Monastery and around Jokhang Temple, Tibet’s most sacred shrine, and Chomsigkang Market, with a number of shops, banks and hotels burnt, causing blackouts and disrupting communications.

A mosque was also set on fire, the report said. “People were also seen burnt by the attackers.”

Many rioters carried backpacks filled with stones and bottles of inflammable liquids, iron bars, wooden sticks and long knives, it said, alleging the mobs assaulted passersby, sparing not even women and children.

The rampaging mobs smashed windows, automatic teller machines and traffic lights, looted several clothing shops, restaurants and mobile phone stores and set alight bikes, motorcycles and cars.