British PM: China Agrees To Tibet Talks

Troops Crack Down On Tibetan Areas; Chinese Premier Could Dialogue With The Dalai Lama

(AP) 
Lhasa was reportedly calm under a tight security presence that moved in over the weekend.

An employee of the local Coca-Cola bottler, who declined to give his name, said a small demonstration was held in the city on Tuesday, but the protesters fled when troops arrived.

He said the company had conducted no business since Friday when customers, including a wholesaler, shops and supermarkets, had been attacked and looted.

Protests spilled over from Tibet into traditionally Tibetan areas of surrounding provinces where more than half of China's 5.4 million Tibetans live.

Police and soldiers set up checkpoints across a wide swath of western China and officers turned back an Associated Press photographer traveling west from Sichuan's provincial capital of Chengdu near the famed Wolong panda preserve.

Officers said an order was issued Monday barring foreigners from all Tibetan areas in the province for 10 days.

An official with the Sichuan Foreign Affairs Department said no official notice had been issued, but said she had heard of two cases of police turning reporters away.

"I wouldn't suggest trying again," said the woman, who like many Chinese government workers, gave only her surname, Yuan.

China imposed a ban on tour groups traveling to Tibet last week, dealing a blow to the region's fast-growing tourist industries.

Officers were also seen pulling Tibetans in traditional costume off buses leaving Tibetan regions, searching their luggage and questioning them. It was not clear whether they were allowed to continue their journeys.

On Tuesday, thousands of Tibetans flooded the streets of Seda, in Sichuan province, according to the Tibet Center for Human Rights and Democracy.

Activist groups also circulated graphic photographs of protesters who they said were massacred Sunday by Chinese police at Kirti monastery, in Sichuan's Aba prefecture, known as Ngawa in Tibetan. The images showed several men who were apparently shot and bodies covered in blood. There was no way to verify the authenticity of the photographs.

On Tuesday in neighboring Gansu province, Tibetans on horseback and motorcycles attacked a government compound near the town of Hezuo, but were beaten back by police wielding clubs.

Protesters lowered the Chinese flag and raised the snow lion emblem of independent Tibet in its place, but quickly dispersed when paramilitary reinforcements arrived.

There were no reports of serious injuries or arrests.

While the crackdown has spurred outrage and protests overseas, most Chinese appeared to back the government, underscoring the effectiveness of its strategy of catering to nationalism by portraying its critics as traitors and separatists.

Insults, hate-speech and threats directed at Tibetans could be found on many online forums, and overseas groups reported unconfirmed attacks by members of the Chinese public on monks and ordinary Tibetans in Chengdu and other cities.

The government has, meanwhile, tightly controlled reporting on the events, seeking to ensure that its version of events is the only one told.

A woman reached by phone at Lhasa's Religious Affairs Bureau said staff had been told to "tell the media we have nothing to say."

[runningralph]

Zemma yang?

[runningralph]

There are always people who want to bring down the established government. Since China has quit communism and got control of their population growth, they will get richer and more powerful. The smart move for Tibetans would be to hang with China and be part of new prosperity.