Beijing
Hundreds of Tibetans protested at the weekend in two north-western
Chinese provinces despite deployments of security forces, exile
groups said Monday, as the government announced charges against five
protesters arrested on suspicion of causing fatal fires.
Saturday's and Sunday's demonstrations took place in areas of Gansu
and Qinghai provinces with ethnic Tibetan populations, the groups
said, adding that witnesses said a number of demonstrators were
injured in clashes with security forces during a protest by about
1,000 people in the Gansu city of Xiapagou.
Young Tibetans and Tibetan monks fled the protest to avoid arrest,
the reports said.
Protests were also reported in Malho prefecture and Manra county in
Qinghai.
Tibetan groups said Chinese security forces have increased their
presence in Tibetan-populated areas, surrounded monasteries and in
some places cut off food and water supplies.
The Ministry of Public Security held a press conference Monday but
refused to answer questions about the recent protests and rioting.
Ministry spokeswoman Shan Huimin said five suspects were charged
with arson leading to the death of 10 people in two separate
incidents on March 14 and March 15 in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet.
Three of those charged were young Tibetan women who set fire to an
apparel shop where five employees died on March 14, Shan said.
Shan showed footage of rioting in Lhasa that was aired earlier by
state television and read a statement on the violence in Lhasa,
saying 242 police and paramilitary officers were injured.
She left the room immediately after reading her statement to about
100 foreign and Chinese journalists, who were filmed by officials at
the event.
Protests by Tibetans in China and other countries began March 10,
the 49th anniversary of a failed uprising in Tibet against Chinese
rule.
China said 19 people died in the violence, but the India-based
Tibetan government in exile said it confirmed the deaths of at least
130 people, many of them Tibetans shot by Chinese police.
Shan reiterated China's stand that its forces did not open fire on
protesters in Lhasa although last week the government admitted to
firing on protesters in self-defence in the town of Aba in the
south-western province of Sichuan but reported no deaths there.
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