This TV grab from March 16 shows a boy being taken by force along a street in Lhasa
China sees 'life or death struggle' in Tibet
BEIJING (AFP) — China said Wednesday it was engaged in a "life or death struggle" over Tibet as dramatic footage emerged of Tibetan protesters rampaging on horseback and hoisting their national flag.
With China deploying a massive security force to quash the uprising and sealing off the hotbed areas from foreign media, activists and a rights group warned hundreds of Tibetans believed arrested may be at risk of torture.
Activist groups also released photos on Tuesday of eight dead Tibetans they said had been killed by Chinese forces at a protest in Sichuan province, saying it was proof of the brutal methods being used to quell the unrest.
But amid the fierce international scrutiny and its image being tarnished ahead of the Beijing Olympics, China showed no signs of backing down in its controversial campaign to end the uprising against its 57-year rule of Tibet.
"We are currently in an intensely bloody and fiery struggle with the Dalai Lama clique, a life or death struggle with the enemy," Tibet's Communist Party leader Zhang Qingli said in an editorial in the Tibet Daily on Wednesday.
"As long as we... remain of one heart, turn the masses into a walled city and work together to attack the enemy, then we can safeguard social stability and achieve a full victory in this intense battle against separatism."
The protests began in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa last week and escalated into deadly incidents on Friday.
While blanket security of the city appeared to have stymied any further major protests there, Tibetans living in neighbouring and nearby provinces have continued to defy authorities and protest for independence of their homeland.
China has tried to block foreign reporters from travelling into these regions, but Canadian TV said it was able to witness one of those protests on Tuesday in Gansu province, and showed dramatic footage of the unrest.
In the broadcast, more than 1,000 ethnic Tibetans, some of them on horseback, charged into a remote town, attacking a government building, pulling down the Chinese flag at a school and hoisting the Tibetan one.
Inside the town the crowd of Tibetans was repelled by about 100 heavily armed soldiers using tear gas, CTV said.
CTV's story was posted on YouTube on Wednesday and could be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxm2obArsBs.
China has insisted it has used no deadly force to quell the unrest, reporting that the only people who have died so far were 13 "innocent civilians" killed by rioters in Lhasa on Friday.
However Tibet's parliament-in-exile said on Monday that "hundreds" of people had been killed in the Chinese crackdown.
Activists also pointed to photos said to be of dead Tibetans from a protest on Sunday in Ngawa, in southwest China's Sichuan province, as proof that Chinese forces were using lethal force.
The photos purportedly showed different men and at least one woman who appeared to be dead, with a bullet wound over the heart of one man. The body of another man is lying naked on a plastic sheet saturated in blood.
The veracity of the photos could not be independently verified by AFP.
Meanwhile on Wednesday, China's official Xinhua news agency said 105 Tibetan "rioters" in Lhasa had surrendered by late Tuesday night, following a midnight Monday deadline to turn themselves in.
But exiled groups and rights activists said at least hundreds of Tibetans had been detained and were at risk of torture amid a sweep by Chinese security forces throughout Tibet and other hotspot areas.
"It seems like there are many hundreds of arrests at least, possibly thousands, across the country," Lhadon Tethong, director of Students for a Free Tibet, told AFP, as other groups gave similar tallies.
Human Rights Watch warned those in custody were at great risk of being tortured.
"Given the long and well-documented history of torture of political activists by China's security forces there is every reason to fear for the safety of those recently detained," said Brad Adams, Human Rights Watch's Asia director.
A male official with the public security bureau in Lhasa would not comment on the surrenders or reported arrests on Wednesday and told AFP not to call back.
The protests began in Lhasa last week to mark the anniversary of a failed 1959 uprising against Chinese rule.
Chinese authorities have repeatedly accused Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, who fled his homeland after the 1959 uprising, of masterminding the latest unrest.
But the Nobel Peace laureate, 72, has repeatedly insisted he does not want independence, but an end to what he has said is widespread repression in his homeland.
China's officially annexed Tibet in 1951, a year after sending troops in to "liberate" the region.
Tenzin Gyatso, the Dalai Lama, urges Tibetans to stop the violence.
Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, has vowed to step down from his position if things "get out of control" in Tibet, where violent demonstrations against China have killed anywhere from 13 to 100 people.

At a news conference in Dharamsala, India, the Dalai Lama said he was opposed to the use of violence against China's rule. "Violence is almost suicide," he said. "Even if 1,000 Tibetans sacrifice their lives, it will not help." However, he acknowledges that many radical Tibetans have criticized his policy of non-violence, and says that his only option is to "completely resign" if the bloodshed continues. 

After making these statements, his secretary Tenzin Taklha said it would be impossible for him to resign as Tibet's spiritual leader, and that he will only be able to resign as their political leader. "If the Tibetans were to choose the path of violence, he would have to resign because he is completely committed to nonviolence," Taklha said. "He would resign as the political leader and head of state, but not as the Dalai Lama. He will always be the Dalai Lama."

The Dalai Lama responded to accusations made by China's premier, Wen Jiabao, who said there was evidence proving that the riots were "organised, premeditated, masterminded and incited by the Dalai clique". The Dalai Lama asked Chinese officials to come to his headquarters in Dharamsala and investigate. "Check our various offices," he said. "They can examine my pulse, my urine, my stool, everything."

He also suggested that the Chinese themselves may have orchestrated the protests as a way to discredit him. "It's possible some Chinese agents are involved there," the Dalai Lama said. "Sometimes totalitarian regimes are very clever, so it is important to investigate."
Wen Jiabao, the Chinese Premier, says the protests were orchestrated by the "Dalai clique".
Wen Jiabao's remarks came at an annual news conference at the end of China's national legislative session. He said the intent of the riots was to "undermine the Beijing Olympic Games" and "serve their hidden agenda". He added, "This has all the more revealed that the consistent claims made by the Dalai clique that they pursue not independence but peaceful dialogue are nothing but lies."

Wen said China will be open to negotiation with the Dalai Lama if he recognizes Tibet and Taiwan as "inalienable parts of the Chinese territory". The Dalai Lama responded by inviting Wen to speak with him. "If the Chinese side ... accepts the reality and addresses the Tibetan problem realistically, within a few hours we can solve this problem," he said.

Although China suspects the Dalai Lama and his followers wish to break away from Chinese control, Tenzin Gyatso said that "independence is out of the question" and instead advocated greater autonomy within China. "We should not develop anti-Chinese feelings," he said. "We must live together side by side."

He said he plans to meet with Tibetan exiles who are currently marching from India to Lhasa, as he believes their ambitions to be futile. "Will you get independence? What's the use?" he asked, calling for them to stop at the border.

Meanwhile, China continued with efforts to arrest those involved in the Lhasa demonstrations, after a midnight deadline for protesters to turn themselves in passed without any apparent surrenders. Witnesses reported 4 army trucks carrying off dozens of handcuffed prisoners. Urgen Tenzin, executive director of the Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy, said about 600 Tibetans were arrested Monday.

Police were seen patrolling the streets of Lhasa, carrying batons or rifles and checking for identification papers. "When the fighting began, you saw no Chinese," said John Kenwood, a Canadian tourist. "Now you see no Tibetans on the streets. The young Tibetans are probably hiding."

The protests, which began in Lhasa, have since spread to neighboring provinces. In Aba, Sichuan, one witness reported 17 deaths. "Earlier today, the whole town was teeming with police and soldiers," he said. "All the shops have been closed. There are no arrests that I know of ... People are anticipating that something big is going to happen." Elsewhere in Sichuan, thousands of Tibetans turned out in the streets of Seda, according to the Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy. 

The international community has repeatedly urged China to use restraint in dealing with protesters, and to start talks with the Dalai Lama. United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Monday, "We have really urged the Chinese over several years to find a way to talk with the Dalai Lama, who is a figure of authority, who is not a separatist, and to find a way to engage him and bring his moral weight to a more sustainable and better solution of the Tibet issue."