'80 dead' in Tibet riot; Dalai Lama fears more chaos (3rd Roundup)

Beijing - The Tibetan government in exile said Sunday it had confirmed at least 80 deaths in rioting in Lhasa, amid reports later of fresh clashes between protesters and security forces in the city's west. There were no immediate details about the latest clashes.

Tibetan independence protests also continued in monastery towns in western China on Sunday - and the Dalai Lama said he had 'grave concerns' that more bloodshed could follow.

The German newspaper Frankfurter Rundschau reported that staff from international non-governmental organisations were ordered to leave Lhasa by Monday, raising fears that troops could toughen their crackdown on the protesters once a deadline for protesters to surrender passes at midnight on Monday.


'As the Tibet uprising continues reliable sources have confirmed that at least 80 people were killed on March 14, 2008 in Lhasa,' the government in exile, based in the Indian city of Dharamsala, said in a statement.

The Dalai Lama, the highest leader of Tibetan Buddhism, told the BBC that the situation in Tibetan areas of China had become 'very, very tense.'

'Now today and yesterday, the Tibetan side is determined. The Chinese side also equally determined. So that means, the result: killing, more suffering,' the broadcaster quoted him as saying.

The Dalai Lama said the Chinese government should stop 'clinging to its policy' of relying on force to control Tibetans because 'they cannot control human minds.'

Paramilitary police shot dead at least eight protesters in clashes with hundreds of monks and lay Tibetans on Sunday afternoon that began at the Kirti monastery in Ngaba county, Sichuan province, the India-based Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy reported.

It quoted reports of at least '30 Tibetans felled' after armed troops shot indiscriminately into the peacefully protesting Tibetans.

Of the eight bodies, one was identified as that of Lobsang Tashi, a former monk in his mid-20s. The monks at the monastery were offering prayers for the dead.

Hundreds of people were also known to have been injured in the clashes after a 'peaceful demonstration by thousands of people,' the centre said in a statement, citing eyewitness accounts.

Meanwhile in Lhasa, the capital of China's Tibet Autonomous Region, one resident said hundreds of Tibetans were continuing protests despite a military crackdown after riots erupted on Friday.

Tibetan protesters took to the streets Saturday night, shouting that they wanted to rid Lhasa of all Chinese people, a Chinese resident told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa by telephone.

'They burned buildings and smashed windows and everything else,' said the woman, who works at a Lhasa travel agency.

She said she heard rumours that police detained about 1,000 monks on Saturday and that 6,000 others were continuing their protests.

Army reinforcements arrived Saturday from neighbouring Yunnan province, she said, as troops with tanks and armoured personnel carriers imposed de facto martial law in Lhasa.

An estimated 3,000 Tibetan protesters in the town of Xiahe, near Labrang monastery in China's Gansu province, shouted slogans in support of the Dalai Lama Saturday and called for the release of the Panchen Lama, US-based Radio Free Asia reported.

Police used tear gas after monks and lay Tibetans marched along the main street in the town, attacking shops, banks and other buildings, Xiahe residents said told dpa by telephone.

More protests were reported in Lithang and Sershul towns in Sichuan.

The Dalai Lama fled to India in 1959 after an abortive uprising against the occupation of Tibet by Chinese troops since 1951.

The current protests began on Monday to mark the 49th anniversary of the 1959 uprising.

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