Activists claim eight killed in fresh Tibetan area violence

Beijing: Police fired on hundreds of protesters in a Tibetan area of western China, killing eight people, an overseas activist group said. State media reported one government official was seriously injured in what it called a riot.

Two monks also committed suicide late last month because of government oppression, another Tibetan activist group said on Saturday.

The reports indicate that unrest is continuing in China's Tibetan areas despite a massive security presence in place since violent anti-government demonstrations broke out in mid-March in Tibet's capital, Lhasa, and neighbouring provinces.

The London-based Free Tibet Campaign said on Friday police fired on Buddhist monks and ordinary citizens who had marched on local government offices in Garze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan province near Tibet on April 3.

The protesters were demanding the release of two monks who were detained after 3,000 paramilitary troops searched their monastery and found photographs of the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled Buddhist leader, the group said.

The US government-funded Radio Free Asia said it had unconfirmed reports that up to 15 people were killed and dozens injured in the violence.

Suicides

Calls to local police and hospitals in the area were unanswered yesterday or else officials said they had no information.

The official Xinhua News Agency had no information on deaths or injuries but confirmed that a riot broke out near government offices in Donggu town in Garze.

The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy, based in India, said two monks committed suicide last month in Sichuan's Aba County following government oppression.

One monk, identified as Lobsang Jinpa, from the Aba Kirti Monastery killed himself on March 27, leaving a signed note saying "I do not want to live under Chinese oppression even for a minute," the human rights group said.

The second suicide occurred on March 30 at the Aba Gomang Monastery, when a 75-year-old monk named Legtsok took his life, telling his followers he "can't beat the oppression anymore", the group said.

It was impossible to verify the information since Chinese authorities have banned foreign reporters from travelling to the region.

Also on Friday , state media reported more than 1 million people signed an online petition alleging Western media bias in covering the Tibetan protests.

The petition alleges that some Western media organisations, including CNN and BBC, have reported "untrue and distorted" stories on the Lhasa riots.