China tightens security ahead of Tibet anniversary (Roundup)

Mar 9, 2010, 11:54 GMT

Beijing - China has tightened security in its Tibet Autonomous Region ahead of Wednesday's anniversary of a Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule, reports said.

'In recent days, there are police officers on the street 24 hours and the police will check everyone from outside Tibet,' a receptionist at the Xueyu Hotel in the regional capital Lhasa told the German Press Agency dpa by telephone.

'If you want to travel here, you'd better come after March,' he said.

March 10 marks the 51st anniversary of an unsuccessful Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule. It is also the second anniversary of a memorial protest that escalated into ethnic violence and rioting in Lhasa.

The official Xinhua news agency quoted Ma Jun, Lhasa's deputy police chief, as saying on Tuesday that extra police patrols were deployed ahead of the anniversary to 'prevent crime and maintain social stability.'

The Washington-based International Campaign for Tibet quoted sources in Nepal as saying the main border crossing between Tibet and Nepal was 'effectively closed in the lead-up to the anniversary.'

Flights between Kathmandu and Lhasa were suspended from Friday. Nepalese travel agents said tourists may not be able to enter the Tibet Autonomous Region from Kathmandu until 'several days after March 10,' the group reported.

A Chinese government website said police in Lhasa had questioned 435 criminal suspects during a 'Strike Hard' campaign in the city in late February and early March.

The report did not say if any of those questioned were suspected of involvement in political activities, but it said police detained seven people on suspicion of involvement apparently non-political criminal activities.

As part of the crackdown, more than 1,500 police and security guards checked 4,115 rented rooms in the city and questioned 7,374 migrants on the evening of March 2, the regional government reported on its website www.tibet.gov.cn.

Police and firemen also checked 178 hotels, 21 internet cafes, dozens of entertainment centres, several banks, petrol stations and other buildings in Lhasa, the report said.

Authorities confiscated 348 firearms and 6,225 bullets in the operation, it said without giving details.

The India-based Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy said authorities had restricted the movement of many monks at three of Lhasa's biggest monasteries.

The city government set up a 'Lhasa Neighbourhood Committee' of volunteers charged with helping to 'maintain social order' during the anniversary, the centre reported.

The 2008 protests in Lhasa grew into widespread demonstrations against Chinese rule in many Tibetan areas of China over the following weeks.

The government said clashes in Lhasa left 18 people dead and hundreds injured, while Tibetan exile groups put the death toll as high as 200 and said many protestors were shot dead by police.

Since the protests, the government has turned away journalists from Tibetan areas, limited access by foreign tourists and suspended communications in some places.

In January, leaders of China's ruling Communist Party outlined a 10-year economic and social development plan for Tibetan areas, which critics say will only consolidate Chinese control.