China parades law and order in Tibet to foreign press
China says Tibet "returning to normal"
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Wednesday, 26, Mar 2008 11:24
Foreign journalists are to be allowed back into the Tibetan capital Lhasa after the Chinese authorities said unrest had been quelled.
An international media delegation has left Beijing for China's Tibet Autonomous Region on a three-day trip.
China hopes to show the 26 journalists that Tibet is "returning to normal" after weeks of rioting over Chinese rule.
But according to reports from the western Chinese province of Qinghai, hundreds of anti-government marchers have taken to the streets.
State news agency Xinhua said today that the initially peaceful demonstrations, which erupted into violence, in Tibet had been "organised, premeditated and masterminded" by the Dalai Lama.
Foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang has urged the international community to recognise the "true features of the Dalai Lama's secessionist clique".
But the Buddhist leader, who has lived in exile since a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959, has denied organising the protests, which come months before the world's eyes turn to the Beijing Olympics.
China says 18 ethnic Han Chinese civilians and one police officer died during the unrest, although the Tibetan government in exile claims hundreds of protestors have been killed by security forces.
Zhou Wenzhong, China's ambassador to Washington, said Beijing had acted as any other country would faced with domestic turbulence.
"What happened in Lhasa is a law and order issue and no government would tolerate looting, burning, killing. And any responsible government needs to do something about it," he told reporters late on Tuesday.