Suspects in deadly Lhasa arson cases apprehended

BEIJING -- Suspects accused of setting fire to shops in Tibet and causing the deaths of 12 people during anti-government violence have been taken into custody, state media said Monday.

The suspects were responsible for deadly arson attacks on three shops in Lhasa -- including a clothing outlet where five young women were burned to death -- and one in nearby Dagze county, the Tibet Daily newspaper said.

The government has highlighted the burning deaths as a way to show that Tibetans were responsible for the violence that mainly targeted Han Chinese.

China says 18 civilians, most of them Han Chinese, died in the riots, but Tibet's government-in-exile has said 140 Tibetans were killed during the protests.

A total of 414 suspects have been taken into custody in connection with the March 14 riots, and another 298 people have turned themselves in, the report said, citing Jiang Zaiping, vice chief of the Public Security Bureau in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa.

The newspaper did not say how many suspects were involved in the four arson cases or give any other details.

In its evening newscast, state television showed police officers escorting handcuffed young men and women. Some stood in line to sign or fingerprint what appeared to be official documents. In another scene, a group of young men stood in a row, heads bowed with hands by their sides.

An official who answered the telephone at the Lhasa Public Security Bureau said no senior officials were available to give details. He refused to give his name.

Weeks of protests

The protests began peacefully March 10 when Tibetan monks from Lhasa's main monasteries marched to commemorate a failed 1959 uprising against Chinese rule. The demonstrations exploded into violence four days later.

The Lhasa uprising also sparked similar actions in recent weeks by ethnic Tibetans in neighboring provinces. Sympathy protests have also gathered force in other countries.

Indian police barred about 300 demonstrators -- mostly Tibetans -- from marching to the Chinese Embassy in New Delhi Monday, where they planned to submit more than 1.4 million names from an Internet petition calling on China to act with restraint in Tibet.

In Nepal, police broke up a protest by more than 100 Tibetans in front of the Chinese Embassy's visa office in Katmandu and arrested all the participants, who chanted "Free Tibet, stop killing in Tibet."

China has consistently blamed the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, and his supporters for masterminding the Lhasa protests and accused them of trying to sabotage the Aug. 8 to 24 Beijing Olympics in an effort to promote Tibetan independence.

If the Dalai Lama "really wishes to be a simple Buddhist monk, it's high time for him to stop playing politics and cheating people, Westerners in particular, with his hypocritical 'autonomy' claims,"' said a commentary published Monday by Xinhua.

"The self-proclaimed spiritual leader has obviously forgotten his identity, abused his religion and played too much politics," it said.

In a recent interview with Hong Kong-based Phoenix Satellite Television, Prime Minister Wen Jiabao again repeated that resumption of any dialogue would be contingent on the Dalai Lama giving up "independence" activities and agreeing that Tibet and Taiwan were part of China. But Wen also gave a more nuanced plea, asking the Tibetan leader to "utilize his influence to stop the occurrence of violent activities in Tibet."

In the wake of the subsequent crackdown by Chinese forces, Beijing has come under intense international scrutiny over its human rights policies, causing embarrassment to China as it prepares to host the Summer Games.

World leaders from the U.S., Australia and the European Union have repeatedly pressed for China to begin talks with the Dalai Lama.