ON MARCH 14, the otherworldly calm of Lhasa, Tibet's holy city, was shattered by riots and gunfire. The spark that triggered unrest in the Tibetan part of what is now a largely ethnic Han Chinese city is unclear, but occurred somewhere near the Ramoche Temple when Chinese security forces attempted to stop a demonstration by monks.
Whatever the details, only a spark was needed to set off the most serious disturbances in Tibet since the riots of 1987 to 1989, or perhaps since the Tibetan revolt of March 10, 1959, which sent the Dalai Lama into exile.
It was the 49th anniversary of the revolt that led monks from two large monasteries near Lhasa to stage demonstrations in which many of them were arrested.
While denying much of what happened, Chinese officials did reveal the scale of the riots: 422 Chinese-owned shops partially or completely burned, more than 200 million yuan (US$28 million) in damage, 325 people injured, and 13 killed -- all of them Han Chinese. China admitted to no deaths among the Tibetan protesters, claiming that its security forces exercised restraint and did not even fire a single shot.
This contradicted Tibetan reports of dozens of deaths, perhaps as many as 100, and accounts of foreign tourists who said they heard shots and saw the bodies of Tibetans gunned down by the security forces. China claimed that the "Dalai Clique" had "organized, premeditated and carefully engineered and instigated" incidents of "beating, smashing, looting and burning," in an attempt to use the upcoming Olympics in Beijing to publicize the cause of Tibetan independence. But the only evidence China offered was international Tibetan support groups' statements that they intended to demonstrate at events associated with the Olympics.
The claim that force had not been used came from the Tibetan head of the supposedly autonomous government of Tibet, Jampa Phuntsok, who was in Beijing at the time for a meeting of the National People's Congress. Significantly, he remained in Beijing, while the Han Chinese head of the Communist Party in Tibet, Zhang Qingli (張慶黎), returned to handle the situation.
Phuntsok also claimed that the People's Liberation Army (PLA) had not been used to put down the riot -- a sensitive issue because China does not like to admit that the PLA is used internally, as it was during the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre. He said that only the Public Security Police and People's Armed Police had been used. However, foreign military experts observed that the type of armored vehicles used in Lhasa and shown on film were of the type issued only to elite PLA units, though their PLA markings were obscured.
In the aftermath of the riots, disturbances occurred across the Tibetan Plateau, now divided into the Tibet Autonomous Region and several autonomous districts in the neighboring provinces of Qinghai, Gansu, Sichuan and Yunnan. More Tibetan deaths were reported, with China admitting that in some of these instances its security forces had opened fire "in self-defense."
Evidence suggests that the riots in Lhasa and elsewhere were an expression of Tibetan frustration at years of Chinese control and repression.
The situation is unlikely to improve. China now reports that it is rounding up "criminals" across Tibet and will "re-educate" them about their misguided beliefs in Tibetan freedom and independence.
World leaders seem inclined against a boycott of the Olympics, or even of the opening ceremonies, which will highlight China's policies aimed at a "harmonious society and harmonious world" and will certainly feature performances by happy national minorities, including Tibetans.
Warren W. Smith is a broadcaster with the Tibetan Service of Radio Free Asia.
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