Sunday, 15 March 2009

Lhasa, capital of Tibet Autonomous Region, Saturday was placed under surveillance a year after deadly riots of 14 March 2008, a significant anniversary ignored by Beijing.

In the old city of Lhasa, with its famous Buddhist temple of Jokhang, where unrest erupted after four days of peaceful demonstrations, security forces are everywhere, said Saturday of the people contacted by telephone.

"There are armed police patrolling the streets, 24 and 24 hours every day," said Saturday an employee of a hotel in the center of the city, who preferred not to be identified.

"We must take our identity and our residence permit if we are to leave," she added.

Most restaurants and bars must close before 23H00 (15H00 GMT), testified an employee of another hotel in the center of Lhasa, which like the whole of Tibet was closed to foreign press.

Stephanie Brigden, director of the Free Tibet Association, based in London, denounced the establishment of a "de facto martial law" in Lhasa and surrounding regions.

The week began with another significant anniversary, the March 10, marking the 50th anniversary of a Tibetan uprising crushed by China, during which the Dalai Lama had fled to India.

For Beijing, the rioters in Lhasa in 2008 killed 18 civilians and a policeman, a version disputed by the exiles, for whom 203 Tibetans were killed in Lhasa and in the suppression of unrest that had spread to regions Tibetan surrounding population.

At the time, authorities had accused the Dalai Lama of wanting to sabotage the Olympic Games in Beijing.

From his apartment in Beijing, the Tibetan writer Woeser has published on his blog photos from a year ago, "which have not been seen in the Chinese media and show repression.

"They can do whatever they want to hide the truth, it is in our heart, our words and our memories," told AFP that one of the most critical voices of the Chinese presence in Tibet .

"An independent investigation would know what happened in Lhasa", said for his part in Stephanie Brigden AFP.

No income is official media on Saturday its first anniversary, television CCTV evoking in its evening news, the investments made in Lhasa and Tibetan regions.

Warrior single note, Saturday in the Tibet Daily, the leader of the Communist Party in Tibet, Zhang Qingli, called the military "to defeat once and for all the conspiracies of the Dalai Lama clique to split the motherland and cause unrest in Tibet. "

Only New China, in its English service to overseas, denounced those who seem to ignore the real victims of a year ago.

"Most guys + in the United States and the European Union, acting together with the Dalai Lama, putting pressure on China, with resolutions of Congress (U.S.) calling for the end of the + + and the suppression resumption of dialogue for a real autonomy + of + Tibet ", said the official.

Friday, Premier Wen Jiabao has rejected the idea that the riots of last year are a reflection of the failure of politics in Beijing.

"This is precisely the contrary, stability and progress of Tibet shows the correctness of our policies," he said.

Tuesday, the Dalai Lama accused Beijing of having made the "Roof of the World" a "hell."

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BEIJING (AFP)