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IN NEPAL: A policeman chasing a Tibetan refugee monk who was demonstrating in front of the UN office in Kathmandu yesterday over the crackdown in Tibet. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
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BEIJING - A WEEK-LONG confrontation between Tibetan rioters and Chinese security forces appeared headed for a potentially violent showdown after protesters ignored a government ultimatum to turn themselves in by midnight yesterday.
As the deadline loomed, Beijing refused to say if anyone had surrendered, or what new measures it would take.
Chinese officials insisted, however, that the government had not declared martial law or imposed a curfew in Lhasa, the remote Tibetan capital city in western China.
Lhasa was rocked by its worst anti-government protests in two decades last Friday, with rioting monks and residents smashing and setting fire to shops and buildings. The Chinese government said at least 13 were killed, but rights groups said the death toll was several times higher.
Beijing has so far defied expectations that it would launch a severe crackdown. Instead it issued an ultimatum on Saturday telling protesters to turn themselves in by midnight yesterday.
Those who did so would be shown leniency, while those who did not would be dealt with 'severely', the order said.
There were no signs, however, that the protesters were heeding the ultimatum.
Three other provinces with large Tibetan populations - Sichuan, Qinghai, and Gansu - witnessed anti-government protests and clashes even after the ultimatum was issued.
Beijing, meanwhile, has amassed a huge security force in Lhasa, prompting speculation it would lock down the city and arrest suspected troublemakers once the deadline lapsed.
A Times online report said Chinese troops drove through the streets of Lhasa yesterday parading Tibetans in handcuffs, their heads bowed, as troops stepped up their hunt for the rioters in house-to-house searches.
Witnesses said there were about 40 people, mostly young Tibetan men and women, standing with their wrists handcuffed behind their backs.
'A soldier stood behind each prisoner, a hand on the back of their neck to ensure their heads were bowed,' the report said.
Amid the prospect of an escalation in the confrontation, Beijing and Tibetan activists stepped up their war of words over the 'truth' of what happened in Lhasa last week.
At a hastily called press conference in Beijing earlier yesterday, Tibet governor Qiangba Puncog said the Lhasa protests were orchestrated by followers of the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, in order to wreck the upcoming Olympics.
He denied reports and claims that police had fired on the protesters, insisting that security forces acted with great restraint.
But Tibetan activists said the police had killed as many as 100 protesters, while many eyewitness accounts reported gun shots going off in Lhasa.
Foreign journalists have not been able to independently verify the conflicting accounts following Beijing's declaration of a travel ban to Tibet. Foreigners require a permit to enter Tibet, and the majority of those who remained in Lhasa after the clashes began have been told to leave.
Defending the decision, Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said the travel ban was for the journalists' own safety.
Even as foreign governments like the US urged China to open talks with the Dalai Lama, many countries said they were opposed to a boycott of the Beijing Olympics in August.
Singapore International Olympic Committee chief Ng Ser Miang said that sports and politics should be kept separate.
chinhon@sph.com.sg
MORE REPORTS, ASIA
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