PEKING, Oct 1, Reuter: Two hundred Chinese police armed with staves, shields and steel helmets sealed off the center of Lhasa on Saturday, the first anniversary of a bloody riot by Tibetans calling for independence from China.
Westerners in the city said police stopped residents from entering Barkhor square, where stone throwing crowds battled police armed with automatic weapons a year ago, and warned foreign tourists they would be arrested unless they kept away.
Police also patrolled the octagonal alley around the nearby Jokhang temple, walking in the Opposite direction to the constant stream of pilgrims which circles the shrine, the sources said.
China in June announced the founding of a special police detachment in Tibet to prevent riots and separatist agitation.
Most private shopkeepers closed their premises for the day fearing fresh unrest, the sources said. October is also the 39th anniversary of the founding of communist China and a national holiday.
Lhasa authorities have this week appeared nervous of further trouble on the anniversary of the riot, in which a police station was razed and several people killed, Some of them policemen and others protesters shot by police.
A Westerner in Lhasa said on Friday the 1,000 Buddhist monks at the city’s main monasteries, who led last year’s unrest, had been forbidden by authorities to leave their quarters until October 5.
On Tuesday police fired tear gas to prevent Tibetans demonstrating outside the Jokhang Temple after a small group of monks began shouting anticlines slogans, the sources quoted witnesses as saying.
The official New China news agency on Saturday made no mention of the anniversary but said 600 Tibetan soldiers in the People’s Liberation Army had been awarded officer ranks.
Article extracted from this publication >> October 7, 1988
