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A Tibetan (right) carrying a stick prepares to attack a fallen man during protests in Lhasa. Tibetans attacked Han Chinese and their businesses during violent protests. -- REUTERS
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BEIJING - CHINA said on Wednesday that hundreds of people have surrendered to police in Tibetan areas following recent violence, amid rising international pressure over a crackdown on demonstrators mounted ahead of the Beijing Olympics.
State-run media announced that more than 600 people had turned themselves in to police in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa - where protesters rampaged on March 14, setting buildings on fire and attacking ethnic Chinese - and in Sichuan province, where unrest broke out days later.
Police also had published a list of 53 people wanted in connection with the riots, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.
At least 29 people have been formally arrested, but it wasn't clear if they were among the 53 on the wanted list.
The uprising was the broadest and most sustained against Chinese rule in almost two decades, embarrassing and frustrating the communist leadership, which hoped for a smooth run-up to the Beijing Olympics in August.
Thousands of troops and police have been deployed to contain the unrest.
The government says at least 22 people have died in Lhasa; Tibetan rights groups say nearly 140 Tibetans were killed, including 19 in Gansu province.
So far, the United States, Britain and Germany have all condemned China for its response to the protests, but stopped short of threatening to boycott the games or the Aug. 8 opening ceremony.
But French President Nicolas Sarkozy has suggested he could boycott the opening ceremony.
Mr Sarkozy, who had faced criticism in France for his relative silence on the issue, couched his comments late on Tuesday with caution, making it clear that skipping the ceremony was one of several possible French responses to the violence.
'Our Chinese friends must understand the worldwide concern that there is about the question of Tibet, and I will adapt my response to the evolutions in the situation that will come, I hope, as rapidly as possible,' he told reporters in southwest France.
Asked whether he supported a boycott, Mr Sarkozy said he could 'not close the door to any possibility'.
His aides confirmed that Mr Sarkozy was talking only about the opening ceremony. His ministers have repeatedly said France does not support a boycott of the entire games.
US President George W. Bush has long planned to attend the Beijing Olympics, and the White House has said the crackdown in Tibet is not cause for him to cancel.
On Tuesday in Washington, China's ambassador to the United States defended the crackdown, saying it was 'not a question of religious freedom.' 'I think what happened in Tibet is a law-and-order issue,' Mr Zhou Wenzhong said.
China has banned foreign journalists from traveling to the protest areas, making it extremely difficult to verify any information.
But the Ministry of Foreign Affairs plans to take a small group of foreign reporters to Lhasa on Wednesday, though it is unclear how much freedom they will be given to report.
The government said hundreds of people have surrendered to police in recent days.
Xinhua said more than 280 turned themselves in for involvement in the Lhasa riots - a figure confirmed by the Tibet Public Security Bureau.
Another 381 surrendered in Aba county in Sichuan, the official China Daily reported.
It quoted Shu Tao, a Communist Party boss of Luoerda village in the county, as saying most were 'ordinary people and monks who were deceived or coerced'.
A man who answered the phone at the foreign affairs bureau in Aba said people had surrendered, but that he could not confirm how many.
A woman at the local police department hung up after saying she 'cannot answer such sensitive questions'.
Neither gave their names as is common with Chinese officials, who are generally barred from speaking to media.
Authorities had pledged harsh punishment for those participating in the violence. The Tibet Daily quoted the national police chief as saying monks would be subjected to 'patriotic education' classes and he accused the protesters of violating Buddhist tenants.
At past such patriotism classes, monks have been forced to denounce their spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, who remains widely revered despite Beijing's relentless vilification, and declare their loyalty to the communist government.
In Beijing, government-backed Tibet scholars reiterated claims that the violence was orchestrated by the Dalai Lama's followers, part of a spreading campaign to discredit independent reports on the protests that began peacefully among Buddhist monks on March 10, the anniversary of a failed 1959 uprising against Chinese rule.
China's communist troops entered Tibet in 1950, and the country claims to have the Himalayan region for seven centuries. Many Tibetans say they were effectively an independent nation for most of that time.
'The March 14 violent incident was planned and directed by the Dalai clique with support from inside and outside the country,' said Lhagpa Phuntshogs, general director of the China Tibetology Research Center in Beijing.
Mr Tanzen Lhundrup, of the center's Institute of Social and Economic Studies, sought to refute claims that large scale migration of ethnic Han Chinese to Tibet had exacerbated frictions in Lhasa.
'Relations between ethnic groups in Lhasa are extremely harmonious,' he said.
Mr Tanzen Lhundrup said Han made up only 6 per cent of Tibet's population according to the 2000 census. The figure may not have counted all unregistered migrants who constitute a large percentage of the Han population, especially since the 2006 inauguration of a rail link from the Chinese hinterland to Lhasa.
He cited a study by London School of Economics Tibet expert Andrew Fisher as evidence that Tibetans remained a majority in their homeland, despite claims to the contrary by many critics of Beijing.
'The claim of population swamping is definitely true for key population centers such as Lhasa and other strategic cities and towns, although it appears to exaggerate the situation for the general population,' the 2004 study says.
'In most cases the urban Han would not make up for the rural dominance of Tibetans, even if estimates of the Han population were underestimated,' the report said. -- AP
Read also: Tibet deaths, arrests and protests shadow Olympics
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