Tibetan riots continue in China

[frigidmagi]

BBC

Protests are continuing in the Tibetan-populated areas of China, with state-run media saying one policeman was killed in the latest riot.

Several policemen were also injured in the clash in the western Sichuan province, Xinhua news agency reported.

The Tibetan government-in-exile says that 130 people died in and around the Himalayan region during clashes that began on 10 March.

Officials in Beijing have previously put the death toll at 19.

Neither of the figures can be independently verified.

Foreign journalists remain banned from Tibet.

In a separate development on Monday, pro-Tibet activists briefly disrupted a flame-lighting ceremony in Greece for the Olympic Games in Beijing this summer.

Protesters from media rights group Reporters Without Borders broke through the cordon of 1,000 police officers in Olympia as China's envoy spoke.

Differing accounts

Xinhua said one Chinese policeman was killed and several others were injured during the riots on Monday in Sichuan's Gaze prefecture.


TIBET DIVIDE
map
China says Tibet was always part of its territory
Tibet enjoyed long periods of autonomy before 20th century
1950: China launched a military assault
Opposition to Chinese rule led to a bloody uprising in 1959
Tibet's spiritual leader the Dalai Lama fled to India

Q&A: Tibet and China
Key events in Tibet unrest

It did not provide any further details.

Separately, local authorities in Sichuan said 381 people involved in earlier protests in Aba county had given themselves up.

Chinese and Tibetan sources have given very different accounts of the protests, which were started by Buddhist monks on the anniversary of a Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule.

Chinese authorities have blamed the Dalai Lama for orchestrating the unrest, in an attempt to sabotage the Beijing Olympics and promote Tibetan independence.

But the Tibetan government-in-exile, based in Dharamsala, northern India, says innocent civilians were killed by Chinese troops.

China's state media has recently attacked foreign news coverage of the unrest, claiming it is unfair.

The official People's Daily newspaper said foreign journalists had misrepresented government efforts to restore order as a military crackdown.