Chinese Police Clash With Tibetan Protesters; 2 Dead

A Han Chinese resident of Lhasa said cars and shops had been torched, while another said the situation was "very messy.”

Chinese police fired on rioting Tibetan protesters in Lhasa on Friday, killing at least two people, as Tibetans torched cars and shops and anti-Chinese demonstrators surged through the streets of the regional capital.

(KATHMANDU) - Chinese police fired on rioting Tibetan protesters in Lhasa on Friday, killing at least two people, as Tibetans torched cars and shops and anti-Chinese demonstrators surged through the streets of the regional capital, Radio Free Asia reports.

Witnesses who spoke to RFA’s Tibetan service reported seeing two bodies in the central Barkor area of Lhasa, while unconfirmed reports set the death toll higher.

“There was shooting and death,” another Tibetan source told RFA’s Mandarin service, adding, “It’s not convenient to speak on the phone.”

"Now the local Tibetans are protesting in the Barkor area," a third Tibetan source said, referring to a central area in Lhasa. "They ransacked Chinese shops and the police fired live ammunition into the crowd. No one is allowed to move around in Lhasa now."

The rioting began around 10 a.m. Friday and by early evening Lhasa roads were blocked, stranding workers inside their office buildings, sources said.

A Han Chinese resident of Lhasa said cars and shops had been torched, while another said the situation was "very messy.”

Tibetan sources in the city said the protesters were burning and smashing Chinese shops and anything Chinese as they moved through the city, leaving thick black smoke billowing over Lhasa.

Protesters were running through the streets with traditional white scarves in their hands, shouting "Free Tibet," sources said.

The protests swelled to a peak early Friday amid a reduced police presence on the streets.

A third Han Chinese resident said a curfew took effect at around 1 p.m. The protests tailed off around 3:30 p.m., when large numbers of paramilitary People's Armed Police (PAP) were mobilized, residents said.

The crowd was joined by monks from the Ramochi monastery. It then proceeded to smash or burn any property with real or perceived Chinese connections, including a well-known restaurant, Tashi Delek, whose Tibetan owners are believed to be pro-China.

"Protests occurred simultaneously at several locations," one witness said. "Hundreds of protesters were marching in several directions, including in the Barkor area and Rangshong Jong road."

"At one level it appeared to be a orchestrated protest, and at the same time it appeared to be very random and spontaneous, with masses of people emboldened by the relative lack of police presence on the scene," the witness said. "So more and more Tibetans joined the frantic crowds en-route. This was the biggest protest so far in Lhasa."

Tensions in the Tibetan capital have escalated in recent days as the city's three biggest monasteries were sealed off by thousands of armed police. Armed Chinese police fired tear-gas to disperse a crowd of several hundred protesting monks near Lhasa on Tuesday.

The protests began March 10 when hundreds of monks staged a rare demonstration on the 49th anniversary of a 1959 uprising crushed by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army. The Dalai Lama, now 72, subsequently fled into exile in northern India.