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Cops 'hurt' in Tibet clashes
14/03/2008 22:39 - (SA)
Beijing - Many police officers were badly injured in clashes in Tibet's capital Lhasa, Chinese state media said on Saturday, also reporting that a mosque and other buildings had been set on fire.
Xinhua news agency blamed Friday's unrest on rioters "carrying backpacks filled with stones and bottles of inflammable liquids, some holding iron bars, wooden sticks and long knifes." It reported cases of burn injuries.
Xinhua said the violence had died down on Friday night, although wreckages of vehicles were left ablaze on roads in the area of downtown Lhasa where the clashes had taken place.
Meanwhile, Tibet's exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama said he was "deeply concerned" over China's crackdown in the Himalayan region and urged it to "stop using force".
A spokesperson for the Nobel peace laureate also rejected Chinese allegations that the Buddhist leader and his India-based government-in-exile were behind the biggest protests against Chinese rule in Tibet in two decades.
"I am deeply concerned over the situation that has been developing in Tibet following peaceful protests in many parts of Tibet, including Lhasa, in recent days," the 72-year-old Dalai Lama said.
"These protests are a manifestation of the deep-rooted resentment of the Tibetan people under the present governance," he said in a statement released in Dharamshala.
- SAPA
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