Vowing a harsh crackdown, Chinese police conducted house-to-house searches in central Lhasa Monday and rounded up hundreds of Tibetans suspected of participating in a deadly outburst of anti-Chinese violence, exile groups and residents reported.
The large-scale arrests and official promises of tough reprisals suggested the Chinese government has decided to move decisively to crush the protests despite calls for restraint from abroad and warnings that heavy-handed repression could taint next summer's Olympic Games in Beijing.
The Tibetan regional governor, Champa Phuntsok, said detainees who show remorse and inform on others who were part of the week-long unrest would be rewarded with better treatment. But Buddhist monks and other Tibetans who participated in Friday's torching of Chinese-owned shops and widespread attacks on Han Chinese businessmen would be "dealt with harshly," he told a news conference in Beijing.
link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/17/AR2008031700575.html?hpid=moreheadlines
The BBC updates its coverage of the spreading protest:
Meanwhile, in neighbouring Sichuan province, rights groups say seven people were killed when security forces opened fire on Tibetan protesters in the city of Aba on Sunday.
And in Machu, Gansu province, a protester told the BBC a crowd of people set government buildings on fire on Sunday.
Groups of people also took down the Chinese flag and set it on fire, replacing it with the Tibetan flag, he said.
Smaller protests were reported elsewhere in Gansu and Tibet.
link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7299965.stm
Please contact your senators and congresspeople and ask them to open Tibet to foreign media: http://support.savetibet.org/site/PageServer?pagename=How_To_Help_Lhasa_Protests
UPDATE: Another sign of trouble reported to the BBC by a Tibetan outside Lhasa:
The situation feels very tense and there is a heavy military presence. I saw large convoys moving towards Lhasa.
There are all kinds of rumours going around but it is difficult to know what to believe.
My family and friends are all very, very worried and fearful of the unknown and what might happen in the coming days.
We are very worried about arbitrary arrests. We believe that the people recorded on CCTV will get arrested but I fear that others will be arrested.
We are all very worried about the lack of western people and journalists in and around Lhasa. I have not seen any myself in the past day.
link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7300312.stm
The presence of western journalists and international observers is a deterrent to human rights abuses. Everyone, please contact your senators and congresspeople.
UPDATE 2: The BBC has an interview with a Tibetan Buddhist nun who served time in Chinese prisons. This is a must-read to understand the potential human rights abuses that may be happening in the ground, now or in the near future:
The penalties at Drapchi were severe. Ms Sangdrol was forced to suffer beatings with iron rods and rubber pipes, electric cattle prods on the tongue, knitting and spinning until her fingers blistered, and six months in complete darkness while in solitary confinement.
There was also extremely unpleasant hard labour.
"For instance, we had to use night soil on the garden... You have to take turns to go down to the latrine and pass up the waste. When the bucket is pulled, inevitably it splashes and spills everywhere and it will go into your mouth," she said.
She still suffers headaches and kidney and stomach problems as a result of her treatment.
But, she said, "the mental torture was worse".
"We had to denounce his Holiness the Dalai Lama and were not allowed to engage in religious practice."
link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4618775.stm
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