BEIJING (AFP) — Monks at a major Tibetan Buddhist monastery in northwest China defied authorities to stage a protest in front of foreign reporters on Wednesday, one of the journalists said.
The incident at Gansu province's Labrang monastery marked the second time demonstrating monks upstaged a government-escorted foreign media tour of riot-hit Tibetan regions and indicated anti-China tensions continued to simmer.
About 15 monks from the monastery approached the reporters carrying banners and voicing support for the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, said Caroline Puel, a journalist with France's Le Point magazine who witnessed the incident.
"They said in Chinese, 'We want more freedom, more human rights and we want to see the Dalai Lama'," Puel told AFP by phone.
The protest lasted about 10 minutes and ended when government officials conducting the tour urged the foreign journalists to leave, she added.
Puel could not tell what the banners said because they were written in Tibetan.
China's official Xinhua news agency reported a group of monks had "interrupted" the media tour, putting their number at "about 20" but giving few other details.
Puel said the journalists' government minders seemed "very surprised" by the outburst.
On March 27, monks at the Jokhang temple in Lhasa had interrupted a similar tightly-controlled media tour aimed at showing calm had returned to the Tibetan capital.
The Jokhang monks also called for the return of the Dalai Lama and denounced official Chinese versions of the Tibetan unrest as "lies".
Unrest spread across the Tibetan plateau after monks in Lhasa marked the March 10 anniversary of a failed uprising against Chinese rule with demonstrations that later spiralled out of control.
Full-scale rioting erupted in the city on March 14, spilling over into other areas such as Gansu.
Amid the unrest, monks at Labrang, one of Tibetan Buddhism's most important monasteries, led a rally of up to 4,000 people on March 15, according to the Free Tibet Campaign.
The Dalai Lama fled China after the 1959 uprising. China refuses to meet with him or to allow his return.
China has responded to the unrest with a massive security clampdown on affected areas and has barred foreign journalists from those regions.
Tibetan exiled leaders say more than 150 people have been killed in the crackdown. China says it has killed no one, and blamed Tibetan "rioters" for the deaths of 20 people.
Puel said monks at Labrang told her that seven monks had been arrested following the March demonstrations.
A stop in the nearby town of Xiahe showed that normal life appeared to have returned, with children seen going to school and markets open, she added.
Tibet's regional chairman told a Beijing press conference on Wednesday that monks involved in the March 27 Lhasa protest would not be punished.
However, Qiangba Puncog added that could change "if we discover that they are involved in crimes."
There had been some concern that the Jokhang monks would be punished. Monks and nuns who have spoken out against Chinese rule have previously been jailed.
China has blamed the Tibet turmoil on agitators controlled by the Dalai Lama, denying that anger over alleged religious, cultural and political repression of Tibet had been a factor.
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