Troops, police encircle Tibetan monasteries …… BEIJING – Thousands of soldiers and police have reportedly been deployed around two Buddhist monasteries in the Tibetan capital where monks launched protests against Chinese rule earlier this week.
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BEIJING - Thousands of soldiers and police have reportedly been deployed around two Buddhist monasteries in the Tibetan capital where monks launched protests against Chinese rule earlier this week.
A man who answered the phone at the Sera monastery in Lhasa says the monks have been confined inside the walls of the monastery.
He says they have been shut off from outside contact and are relying on dwindling food supplies.
Another Lhasa resident, who also refused to be identified, says the Drepung monastery has encircled by "three layers" of army personnel while the Sera monastery had been surrounded by more than 2,000 police.
The resident said more than 10 trucks filled with soldiers, nearly a dozen police cars and also ambulances were seen heading to the area.
A Foreign Ministry official in Beijing refused immediate comment Thursday.
It is extremely difficult to get independent verification of events in Tibet since China maintains rigid control over the area.
Foreigners need special travel permits, and journalists are rarely granted access except under highly controlled circumstances.
Large-scale demonstrations by the Buddhist monks began Monday as they staged a bold, public challenge to Chinese rule using the anniversary of a failed Tibetan uprising against Beijing rule in 1959.
Demonstrations also spilled over into traditionally Tibetan areas in the neighbouring province of Qinghai. Monks at two other monasteries - the Lutsang monastery and Ditsa monastery - also held small protests but were not detained by police, according to U.S. government-funded Radio Free Asia.
An official in the Bureau of Religious Affairs in Guinan County, where Lutsang is located, confirmed that protests had taken place at the monastery.
"For the past few days, we have been on high alert for protests and other formal gatherings by monks as this has been a widespread occurrence," said the official, who refused to give his name.
Earlier Thursday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang confirmed that protests had taken place, but said the situation had "stabilized."
Qin accused exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama of inciting separatism, though he provided no evidence.
"In recent days, a few monks in Lhasa city have made some disturbances," Qin said at a regular news briefing.
"This is a political scheme by the Dalai group, attempting to separate China and try to make some unrest in the normal harmonious, peaceful life of Tibetan people," he said.
In northern India, police dragged away more than 100 Tibetan exiles on Thursday to prevent them from continuing a march to their homeland to protest China's hosting of the Olympic Games.
The demonstrators had vowed to march from India to Tibet to coincide with the start of the games this summer. Indian officials - fearing the march would embarrass China - banned the exiles from leaving the Kangra district that surrounds the city of Dharmsala, the headquarters of the Tibetan government-in-exile in India.
The marchers were stopped by police in the town of Dehra, about 20 kilometres from the district boundary.
Protesters resisted arrest by sitting or lying down, but were hauled into police buses. There was no violence, witnesses said.
They shouted "Free Tibet!" and other slogans, and some wept as they were taken away.
Clutching Tibetan flags and pictures of the Dalai Lama and Indian pacifist Mohandas Gandhi, the protesters began a hunger strike after being charged with threatening the "peace and tranquility" of the region.
In the Lhasa protests, the involvement of monks from Sera and Drepung is seen as particularly provocative. The monasteries traditionally trained Buddhist scholars who led theocratic Tibet before China supplanted the Dalai Lama and the rest of the theocracy.
After two demonstrations Monday - one in which 300 or more monks from Drepung marched on the streets of the capital, the other in which a smaller groups of monks from Sera protested - police arrested an unknown number of protesters, according to reports and witnesses.
On Tuesday, police used tear gas to disperse an estimated 500 to 600 monks from the nearby Sera monastery who were marching to demand the release of imprisoned fellow monks, Radio Free Asia reported
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