The Olympic torch was lit in Greece on Monday, but unidentified
demonstrators tried to interrupt the ceremony while the Beijing Games
organizing chief was speaking, a sign of China's challenges to come as
the torch circles the globe.
Beijing has stepped up its drive to rally support for the Games in
response to international attention on Tibet. China blames the recent
unrest on the Dalai Lama, Tibetan Buddhism's spiritual leader.
"The political monk's statement of supporting the Beijing Olympic
Games has been proven a lie; his followers boycotted the torch relay
and resorted to violence in Lhasa and elsewhere," the official Xinhua
news agency said of the Dalai Lama.
The government has also sought to contain dissent elsewhere.
On Monday, a Chinese court sentenced an unemployed factory worker
who called for human rights to take precedence over the Olympics to
five years in jail on charges of inciting subversion.
Yang Chunlin's sister said he was jailed because of essays he posted
online that were critical of China's parliament and the ruling
Communist Party.
The petition that mentioned the Olympics touched a nerve in Beijing
where officials hope the Games will showcase economic prosperity and
social unity.
China alleges the exiled Dalai Lama conspired to wreck the Games and
masterminded the wave of protests that began with peaceful rallies in
Tibet's capital Lhasa on March 10, the 49th anniversary of a failed
uprising against Chinese rule.
Five days later, the marches erupted into a riot in Lhasa that China says killed 19.
HIGHER DEATH TOLL
The Tibetan government-in-exile in India raised its death toll in
the clashes to 130 on Monday. China has barred foreign journalists from
Tibet and surrounding areas, making independent verification of the
reports difficult.
Police spokeswoman Shan Huimin said five people had been detained in
Lhasa in relation to arson during the riot. She said three female
Tibetans in their twenties faced arson charges and had confessed their
crimes. In the case of the other two, the investigation was still
ongoing and the charges unspecified.
"These two arson cases once again show the March 14 incident was not
a peaceful demonstration or a peaceful protest. It was entirely a
serious violent incident," she told a news conference.
Since the Lhasa unrest, demonstrations have flared throughout ethnic Tibetan parts of China, leading to violence.
The Dalai Lama rejects China's claim that he is behind the protests and says he does not oppose Beijing's Games.
When the Olympic flame arrives in Beijing on March 31, before
embarking on its journey around the world, a second torch will be lit
and taken to Tibet for an attempt to take it to the top of Mount
Everest, at 8,848 meters (29,030 ft) above sea level, on a day in May
when the weather looks best.
But the turmoil threatens to overshadow the torch's journey to the world's highest peak.
A Tibet sports official told a newspaper that the Everest climb was certain to go ahead under strict security.
"The region's torch relay leadership team will closely coordinate
and cooperate with all concerned units, taking very seriously and
cooperating with security and protection work, and strictly guarding
against disturbances and sabotage by the Dalai clique," the unnamed
official told the state-run Tibet Daily.
In a departure from the government line, Bao Tong, the most senior
Chinese official ousted over the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, said
the Dalai Lama was the "only Tibetan leader with the hope of presiding
over a reconciliation agreement."
"Only if the central (government) sits down for dialogue with the
Dalai Lama and shows great wisdom, great decisiveness and great
boldness of vision, the Lhasa incident can be handled well," Bao wrote
in a statement e-mailed to Reuters.
REPORTS OF MORE PROTESTS
China has invested huge amounts of money and political capital to
make the 2008 Summer Olympics a showpiece of the country's prosperity
and confidence. It has warned critics and protesters not to disrupt the
event.
But two overseas groups reported ongoing protests in Tibetan
enclaves of China over the weekend, contradicting government claims
that the areas have been quiet since last Thursday.
The Dharamsala-based Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy
said hundreds of Tibetans staged a peaceful protest in Malho county of
Qinghai following a religious ceremony on Saturday. Sunday also saw
protests in the province, it said.
Monks and lay people held a march in southern Gansu, chanting
slogans for the return of the Dalai Lama to Tibet, the Free Tibet
Campaign reported, citing a witness.
In Aba, an area of Sichuan where the government said last week
police opened fire on protesters, Xinhua reported schools were back in
session after a week's suspension due to the unrest, and were carrying
out "patriotic education activities."
(Additional reporting by Benjamin Kang Lim in Beijing and Karolos Grohmann in Athens; Editing by David Fogarty)
