Tibet, March 17th. The Crackdown Begins.

The Chinese Army drove through the streets of Lhasa today parading dozens of Tibetan prisoners in handcuffs, their heads bowed, as troops stepped up their hunt for the rioters in house-to-house searches.

As the midnight deadline approached for rioters to surrender, four trucks in convoy made a slow progress along main roads, with about 40 people, mostly young Tibetan men and women, standing with their wrists handcuffed behind their backs, witnesses said.

A soldier stood behind each prisoner, hands on the back of their necks to ensure their heads were bowed.

Loudspeakers on the trucks broadcast calls to anyone who had taken part in the violent riots on Friday — in which Han Chinese and Hui Muslims were stabbed and beaten and shops and business set on fire — to turn themselves in. Those who gave themselves up might be treated with leniency, the rest would face severe punishment, the broadcasts said.

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The search for those involved began in earnest in Lhasa today, as office workers trickled back to work after a weekend of fear when most dared not go outside.

Soldiers began house-to-house searches, checking all identification papers, residents said. Anyone unable to show an identity card and a household registration permitting residence in Lhasa was being taken away.

They described people laying out all their papers on a table in their homes. One said: “The soldiers come in and check that the number of people in each house equals the number of identity cards. Anyone extra may be taken away.”

At government offices and work units, leaders were required to do a roll call of all employees and to account for anyone missing, as the authorities tried to track down those involved in the violence.

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The unrest has spilt over rapidly into neighbouring provinces in China with a large ethnic Tibetan population. Tibetan students at the NorthWest Minorities University in Lanzhou staged an all-night sit-in at a school sports field before dispersing this morning.

In the nearby town of Hezuo, in northwestern Gansu province, several dozen students from the Hezuo School of Hygiene took to the streets to demonstrate in sympathy for Tibetans in Lhasa but were quickly dispersed by police, school officials said.

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Beijing has repeatedly said that the violence was engineered by supporters of the Dalai Lama. He is still the region’s widely revered spiritual leader and one of the figures most reviled by China’s communist leadership.

 

Source: Times Online