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BEIJING: Police shot dead an alleged Tibetan independence
“insurgent” in northwest China, state press said Wednesday, the
first official admission that authorities killed anyone during
recent unrest.
A policeman was also killed in the gun battle on
Monday in a Tibetan populated area of Qinghai province, Xinhua news
agency reported.
Tibet’s government-in-exile previously said
more than 200 people had been killed in a huge Chinese military and
police crackdown on protests against Beijing’s rule of the
Himalayan region that began on March 10.
Until Wednesday’s report, Chinese authorities
had insisted they had killed no one in the crackdown, blaming
Tibetan “rioters” for the deaths of 20 people.
China, however, sealed off Tibet and other
hotbed areas in the west of the country that have Tibetan
populations to stop foreign reporters and other independent
observers from witnessing the crackdown.
The unrest has deeply angered and embarrassed
China’s communist rulers ahead of the Beijing Olympics, as it has
been a rallying cry for pro-Tibetan protesters who have followed the
Games’ torch relay around the world.
Monday’s incident occurred after police went
in pursuit of the leader of a handful of “insurgents seeking
Tibetan independence,” Xinhua reported, citing the Qinghai public
security department.
“After a month-long investigation, the police
moved on Monday to arrest the suspected leader. The suspect resisted
arrest and gunfire broke out,” Xinhua reported, citing the
department.
“The officer was killed in the gun battle, and
other officers returned fire, killing the suspect.”
Xinhua identified the police officer as Lama
Cedain, but did not release the name of the alleged “insurgent”
who was killed. Local and provincial police refused to comment when
contacted by Agence France-Presse on Wednesday.
The unrest began in Lhasa on March 10 to mark
the anniversary of a failed 1959 uprising against Chinese rule of
Tibet. It then spread to Qinghai as well as Gansu and Sichuan
provinces, which have large ethnic Tibetan populations.
Tibet’s government-in-exile on Tuesday said
that 203 people had been killed, about 1,000 injured and 5,715
arrested in the latest Chinese crackdown.
-- AFP
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