BEIJING — China acknowledged for the first time today that anti-government riots in Tibet last week have spread to other provinces, while communist authorities announced the first group of arrests in connection with the violence.
The moves came as the government sent armed police into far-flung towns and villages to reassert control in the Tibetan areas of western China as sporadic demonstrations against Chinese rule in Tibet continued to flare up.
A top Beijing Olympics official vowed the unrest would not disrupt plans for the torch relay preceding this summer’s Olympics in Beijing. One leg of the relay is to pass through Tibet, taking the flame to the peak of Mount Everest sometime in May.
China’s official Xinhua News Agency cited “riots in Tibetan-inhabited areas in the provinces of Sichuan and Gansu, both neighboring Tibet.” It blamed the incidents on supporters of the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader.
Foreign media banned
The Xinhua report confirms previous claims by exile Tibet activist groups that the protests had spread. Foreign journalists have been banned from going to Tibet and stopped by police from entering areas in other provinces large with Tibetan populations.
This morning, an Associated Press photographer was turned away from a flight to Zhongdian in Yunnan province. There were 12 police officers, some with automatic weapons, at the check-in counter.
The Tibet Daily reported that 24 people had been arrested for endangering state security and other “grave crimes” stemming from their role in Friday’s riots in Tibet’s capital, Lhasa.
“This incident has severely disrupted the social order (and) harmed people’s life and property,” Lhasa deputy chief prosecutor Xie Yanjun was quoted as saying. He called the riots “organized, pre-planned, and well-designed by the Dalai clique.”
Roadblocks, ID checks
Xinhua said late Wednesday that 170 people had surrendered for their role in last week’s riots in Lhasa. China says 16 people were killed, denying claims by Tibetan exile groups that 80 died.
Tibetans have continued to take to the streets to call for Tibet’s independence and the return of the Dalai Lama, but authorities appeared to be gradually regaining control in Tibet as well as the surrounding provinces where more than half of China’s 5.4 million Tibetans live. Moving from town to town, police checked IDs and set up roadblocks to keep Tibetans in and reporters out.
Journalists in Gansu province saw towns that were like armed camps, with police lining the streets and few people venturing outdoors.
The protests have been the biggest challenge in almost two decades to Chinese rule in Tibet, a region the People’s Liberation Army occupied in 1950 after several decades of effective independence.
Putting world attention on China’s human-rights record, the unrest has prompted discussion of a possible boycott of the Aug. 8 opening ceremony at the Beijing Olympics.
