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China detains 140 Tibetans over protests: reports

Tibetan monks staged a protest in northwest China that led to arrests and heightened security, two activist groups and a local hotel receptionist said yesterday in the latest sign of unrest.

More than 140 Tibetans, including monks, were arrested on Thursday by Chinese security forces for protesting in Tongren County in Qinghai Province, the Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy said.

It was the latest in a series of recent demonstrations in Tibet and in neighboring regions.

Riots erupted in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa on March 14 following four days of peaceful protests against 57 years of Chinese rule over the region and unrest soon spread to neighboring Tibetan populated regions.

The center, citing unnamed sources, said 22 monks from Longwu monastery in Tongren on Thursday staged a demonstration in a local market calling for the release of three monks who were arrested by Chinese forces on April 13.

The protest became large and loud, said the center, which is located in the northern Indian town of Dharamshala, the base of the Tibetan government-in-exile.

Matt Whitticase of the London-based Free Tibet Campaign said some monks came in to try and calm the situation, but police started to beat people severely and arrested and took them away.

“The figures we have is that more than 140 Tibetans were arrested, including a senior lama,” Whitticase said, citing a local monk.

“All the temples within the monastery were besieged by armed police and the monks’ quarters were all being watched by the armed police,” he said.

A receptionist at a hotel in Tong-ren County said yesterday that tourists were no longer allowed into the Longwu monastery.

“There was some disturbance yesterday,” she said. “Today it is quiet.”
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