Tibet riot anniversary passes in tense quiet
Last Updated: Saturday, March 14, 2009 | 11:40 AM ET
CBC News
Carrying a portrait of the Dalai Lama, Tibetan supporters march in Taipei on Saturday to protest Chinese rule in Tibet. (Wally Santana/Associated Press)Paramilitary and plainclothes police were stationed throughout the Tibetan capital on Saturday on the first anniversary of a violent anti-Chinese riot.
The city of Lhasa was reported to be calm amid the patrols and checkpoints.
Rioting broke out in Lhasa on March 14 last year after days of protests against Chinese rule by Buddhist monks. Chinese authorities said the riots killed 18 civilians and a police officer. Exile groups said more than 200 people died in the crackdown that followed.
At a news conference in Beijing on Friday, Premier Wen Jiabao said tensions in the region are "totally and completely an internal affair."
The state-run Xinhua news agency also waded into the debate, saying foreigners should "think twice before putting their fingers into something they are ignorant of again."
Meanwhile, Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu and other Nobel laureates have said China should stop "verbally abusing" the Dalai Lama in light of his comments during this week's 50th anniversary of the failed Tibetan uprising that sent him into exile.
Archbishop Tutu is asking Nobel Peace Prize winners, human rights leaders and others to sign an online petition to express concern over "the current deterioration of the human rights situation in Tibet."
As he marked the 50th anniversary of his exile earlier in the week, the Dalai Lama told Buddhist followers in Dharamsala, India, that China's rule over the decades has made life for Tibetans "hell on earth."
In Taiwan, hundreds of Taiwanese and Tibetan protesters marched in downtown Taipei on Saturday to demand an end to Chinese rule in Tibet.
Participants said they wanted to support the Tibetans' right to choose their own future, adding that they feared Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou's China-friendly policy could lead Taiwan to share Tibet's fate, which has involved increasing numbers of non-Tibetan Chinese moving into the region, threatening Tibetan culture.
Since Ma's inauguration last May, he has improved long-strained relations with China by resuming high-level talks and bolstering trade ties.
China claims both Taiwan and Tibet as its territory.
With files from the Associated Press
