Ten killed in Tibet, security tight

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BEIJING, Mar 15 (AFP): China said Saturday that 10 people had been burnt to death during unrest in Lhasa, as the military locked down the Tibetan capital amid fierce international scrutiny ahead of the Beijing Olympics.
Witnesses said tanks and armoured vehicles were out in force in Lhasa Saturday, a day after the worst protests against China's controversial rule in the vast, mountainous region in nearly 20 years.
The state-run Xinhua news agency said 10 people had been left dead in the unrest, citing government officials from Tibet as blaming "mobs" for the violence.
"The victims are all innocent civilians, and they have been burnt to death," Xinhua said. It said no foreigners had been killed.
However the Tibetan government-in-exile warned the toll could be much higher, saying it had "unconfirmed reports" of about 100 deaths as it called on the United Nations to stop "human rights violations" in Tibet.
China's top official in Tibet, a vast region formally annexed by the country in 1951, said the protests were part of a "separatist" movement that authorities would not allow to succeed.
"The plot of the separatists will fail. We will challenge them firmly, according to law," the chairman of the Tibet government, Qiangba Puncog, told reporters in Beijing on the sidelines of China's annual parliamentary session.
"This is very clear: This is a separatist Dalai Lama clique, inside and outside the country."
The Dalai Lama, Tibet's Buddhist spiritual leader, called on China to "stop using force" and rejected allegations that he and his government-in-exile in neighbouring India were behind the uprising in Lhasa.
"These protests are a manifestation of the deep-rooted resentment of the Tibetan people," he said. "Unity and stability under brute force is at best a temporary solution."
Earlier, Xinhua said many police officers had been badly injured in clashes and that rioters had wielded "backpacks filled with stones and bottles of inflammable liquids, some holding iron bars, wooden sticks and long knives."
A Chinese tour operator and other people in Lhasa contacted by the news agency said the tanks and armoured personnel carriers were patrolling the city Saturday.
"There are tanks and armed soldiers on the streets. We have been told to stay in our rooms... the city is shut down," Wu Yongzhe, the tour organiser, said by phone.
Wu, other tour operators and travellers said Tibet had been closed to foreign tourists.