Riots break out in Tibetan capital

看板China_Travel (中國旅遊)作者npchen (426)時間18年前 (2008/03/14 20:07)推噓0(0推 0噓 0→)

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※ [本文轉錄自 CrossStrait 看板] 作者: npchen (426) 看板: CrossStrait 標題: Riots break out in Tibetan capital 時間: Fri Mar 14 20:02:51 2008 http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/03/14/tibet.unrest/index.html (CNN) -- Protesters set fire to vehicles and shops in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa on Friday, as tear gas filled the streets and gunfire rang out, a witness told CNN. Roughly 1,000 people hurled rocks and concrete at security forces, demolishing military trucks and pushing back riot police, the witness said. Protesters appeared to be targeting shops and vehicles owned by Han Chinese , the predominant ethnic group in China. A main market in the capital was set on fire, and some Tibetans were hospitalized with serious injuries, according to Kate Saunders, a spokeswoman for the International Campaign for Tibet, which promotes human rights and democratic freedom in Tibet. Friday's violence appears to have started when police tried to stop a peaceful protest by monks at Ramoche Temple, Tashi Choephel of the Tibetan Center for Human Rights told CNN from Dharamsala, India. "The monks from the Ramoche Temple on the north side of Lhasa, they started a peaceful demonstration and they were blocked by the People's Armed Police ," Choephel said. A photo e-mailed to CNN from a source in Lhasa showed what appeared to be Chinese military vehicles containing security forces armed with riot shields at the Ramoche Temple. Saunders said violence broke out as bystanders joined the protest. "Apparently local people -- lay people -- got involved, and a police car was set on fire. This was followed by Tromsikhang Market being set on fire ," she said from London. Saunders said her organization had confirmed reports that some Tibetans had been hospitalized with serious injuries, though she didn't know the nature of the injuries or how many people were being treated. A Han girl who spoke to CNN from Lhasa said she had been beaten by a group of Tibetans. "I am now in hospital with a bandage on my head," she said. "The trains are closed and I am not sure if I can take a plane back, or if I can reach the airport. All is chaotic now." China continues to impose reporting restrictions on foreign media in Tibet and the neighboring province of Xinjiang. CNN sought permission to enter Tibet on Friday morning Beijing time. So far, this perrmission has not been granted. China's state-run Xinhua News Agency confirmed that shops had been set on fire and that owners of nearby businesses had shut their doors, according to The Associated Press. The violence was under way near Barkhor Square, home to the revered Jokhang Temple. Some ethnic Tibetan shopkeepers hung Tibetan scarves outside their stores in an attempt to spare them from the protesters' wrath. The unrest follows days of demonstrations in Tibet and neighboring India over Chinese rule in Tibet, an autonomous region of China that has long sought its independence. The protests come less than five months before China is to stage the Summer Olympic Games in Beijing. Don't Miss * iReport: Send images, photos On Thursday, two monks from the Drepung Monastery in Lhasa tried to kill themselves to protest Chinese rule, Radio Free Asia reported, as Chinese authorities blamed the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, for the unrest. Saunders told CNN the scale of the protests was unprecedented since the imposition of Chinese martial law in 1989. Security forces also fired tear gas to disperse hundreds of protesting Tibetan monks near Lhasa on Tuesday, according to Radio Free Asia, a nonprofit corporation funded by the U.S. government. Buddhist monks in Lhasa began the protests on Monday, the anniversary of the failed 1959 Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule, The Associated Press reported. advertisement Security forces responded later in the week by surrounding three monasteries in Lhasa, according to the International Campaign to Free Tibet, which promotes human rights and democratic freedom in Tibet. In India, authorities broke up a march Thursday by 100 Tibetan exiles who had planned to trek from the northern city of Dharamshala to Tibet's border in a "Free Tibet" protest. -- ※ 發信站: 批踢踢實業坊(ptt.cc) ◆ From: 123.112.105.74