Tibetan Buddhist monks cry as they surround foreign journalists at the Jokhang Temple in Lhasa on Thursday. (The Central News Agency, via Reuters)
Protesting monks interrupt state-sponsored press trip in Tibet
LHASA, Tibet: A government-managed visit by foreign reporters to the Tibetan capital backfired Thursday when Buddhist monks disrupted the tour, screaming that there was no religious freedom and that the Dalai Lama was not to blame for Lhasa's recent violence.
The Chinese government had arranged the trip for the reporters, part of an effort to portray Lhasa as calm after the deadly riots shattered China's plans for a peaceful prelude to the Beijing Olympics this summer.
As the journalists were being shown around Jokhang Temple - one of Tibet's holiest shrines - by government handlers in Lhasa, they witnessed an outburst by a group of 30 monks.
"Tibet is not free! Tibet is not free!" yelled one young Buddhist monk, who then started to cry.
They also said their exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, had nothing to do with recent anti-government riots by Tibetans in Lhasa, where buildings were torched and looted, and ethnic Han Chinese were attacked.
The government has said the rioting on March 14 was 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.
"This had nothing to do with the Dalai Lama," said another, referring to the March 14 rioting. The Chinese government said that 22 people died during the rioting, while Tibetan exiles said the violence, plus a harsh crackdown afterward, left nearly 140 people dead.
The outburst by the monks came amid a morning of stage-managed events. Reporters had already been taken to a Tibet medical clinic that had been attacked near Jokhang and shown a clothing store where five girls had been trapped and burned to death.
The monks, who first spoke Tibetan and then switched to Mandarin Chinese 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 that 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 that some people brought to the temple for the visit by the journalists "are not true believers but are Communist Party members."
"They are all officials; they arranged for them to come in," another monk said. "And we aren't allowed to go out because they say we could destroy things but we never did anything."
China rarely allows foreign reporters into Tibet under normal circumstances, so the media tour was meant to underscore the Communist leadership's determination to contain any damage ahead of the Beijing Olympics in August that were supposed to celebrate China as a modern, rising power.
Qin Gang, the Foreign Ministry spokesman, said at a news conference Thursday that he had no specific information on the latest protest.
"I would like to stress that including the monks the people of various ethnic groups in Tibet are resolutely safeguarding the national unity and oppose separatist activities," he said.
Later, the area around Jokhang Temple was sealed off by People's Armed Police officers wearing helmets and carrying shields. The only people allowed to enter the area were those who live in the narrow lanes around the temple. Most of the shops near the temple also were closed.
The reporters were kept away from any potential hotspots, including the Ramoche Monastery. Down a lane north of Jokhang, Ramoche is where the violence started on March 14. The narrow lanes leading to it were sealed off by riot police officers in dark blue uniforms.
The government handlers also told the reporters that they would not be able to see the Drepung and Sera monasteries, where the first protests started on March 10.
The reporters were taken to places that had been well publicized on state television as places the rioters had attacked.
That included the Lhasa No. 2 Middle School near Ramoche, where protesters had hurled burning objects that set fire to one two-story building. Nobody was hurt at the school.
The principal, Deji Zhuoge, said he did not know why the school had been attacked. He said 85 percent of the 620 students at the school were Tibetan.
Jokhang-Kloster in Lhasa

 Angaben der tibetischen Exilregierung in Indien zufolge fanden gestern in Tibet erneut Massendemonstrationen statt, die von den Klöstern in Lhasa ausgingen. Demzufolge sollen sich am Samstag gegen 14 Uhr (Ortszeit Tibet) in der Nähe des Ramoqê-Tempels und des Jokhang-Klosters in der Altstadt von Lhasa Menschen versammelt haben, die dann zu einer Demonstration aufbrachen. Innerhalb kürzester Zeit sollen sich dann tausende (nach anderen Quellen mehrere hundert) Menschen dem Zug angeschlossen haben. Anderen Berichten zufolge sollen die genannten Klöster sowie Teile der Altstadt Lhasas danach von Polizeikräften abgeriegelt worden sein.

Journalisten haben zurzeit große Schwierigkeiten, an neutrale Informationen über die Situation in Tibet zu gelangen, weil die chinesische Regierung eine Berichterstattung aus der Region durch die Sperrung der gesamten Region für Ausländer erschwert. Die vorhandenen Quellen von Exil-Tibetern sind nur schwer oder gar nicht nachprüfbar.

Am 29. März wurde der Presseagentur UPI zufolge einer Gruppe von ausländischen Diplomaten in Begleitung chinesischer Behördenvertreter erlaubt, Tibet zu bereisen. Am 27. März war ausgewählten Journalisten auch eine geführte Besichtigung von Lhasa erlaubt worden. Dabei war es einer Gruppe von 30 Mönchen gelungen, zu den Journalisten vorzudringen. Sie beklagten sich über die Unterdrückung ihrer Religion. Die chinesischen Behörden wollten, so die Internationale Kampagne zur Rettung Tibets, durch diese Besichtigung Lhasas nachweisen, dass die Lage unter Kontrolle sei. Den Angaben der Organisation zufolge sollen einige Klöster buddhistischer Mönche im Zentrum Lhasas von der Versorgung mit Wasser und Nahrungsmitteln abgeschnitten sein.

Das religiöse Oberhaupt der Tibeter, der im Exil lebende Dalai Lama, klagte die chinesische Regierung gestern erneut des „kulturellen Völkermords“ an. Durch die gezielte Ansiedlung von Chinesen in Tibet sollten die Tibeter in ihrem eigenen Land zur Minderheit gemacht werden. In der tibetischen Hauptstadt Lhasa lebten seinen Angaben zufolge zurzeit 100.000 Tibeter, aber doppelt so viele Chinesen. Für die Zeit nach den Olympischen Sommerspielen in Peking erwarte er eine Umsiedlung von einer weiteren Million Chinesen nach Tibet.