16 March 2008

Beijing (dpa) - China on Sunday issued a statement condemning rioting in Lhasa from its state-appointed Tibetan Buddhist leader, the Panchen Lama, as witnesses said Tibetan independence protests that left dozens dead in Lhasa had spread to more monastery towns.

"The rioters' acts not only harmed the interests of the nation and the people, but also violated the aims of Buddhism," the government's official Xinhua news agency quoted the Panchen Lama, Gyaincain Norbu, as saying.

China's 18-year-old 11th Panchen Lama was chosen in 1995 by state-sponsored Tibetan Buddhist leaders.

A rival 11th Panchen Lama, chosen and recognized by supporters of the exiled Dalai Lama, has reportedly been held under virtual house arrest in China since he was 6 years old.

An estimated 3,000 Tibetan protesters in the town of Xiahe, near Labrang monastery in China's Gansu province, on Saturday shouted statements in support of the Dalai Lama and called for the release of the Panchen Lama, US-based Radio Free Asia reported.

Monks and lay Tibetans marched along the main street in the town, attacking shops, banks and other buildings, a nurse at the Xiahe Poeple's Hospital told Deutsch Presse-Agentur by telephone.

"They smashed all the glass in the windows," the nurse said.

Nobody was admitted to the hospital with injuries following Saturday's protest, she said.

"Today there are police patrolling the streets," she said. "Only a few shops and restaurants are open."

The India-based Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy said paramilitary police fired tear gas and warning shots into the air to disperse the protestors in Xiahe.

Some of the monks and lay Tibetans who joined the rally were beaten or arrested by police, the centre said.

"It is true that the police used tear gas, but I didn't hear any shots," another Xiahe resident told dpa.

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