Chinese police detain 100 monks after riots

BEIJING, Sunday

Chinese police have detained almost 100 monks after hundreds of people rioted and attacked a police station in a Tibetan part of the western province of Qinghai, state media said today.

The incident comes just over a year after deadly riots broke out in Tibet’s regional capital Lhasa last March 14 after several days of peaceful protests by monks against Chinese rule.

The official Xinhua news agency today said people had been “deceived by rumours” about the disappearance of a man, Zhaxi Sangwu, who had earlier been detained on suspicion of engaging in Tibet independence activities.

On Saturday, a crowd “assaulted policemen and government staff. Some government staff were slightly injured,” the report added. Calm had returned to the area, Xinhua said.

The English-language report said six people had been formally arrested and another 89 had “surrendered”, most of whom were monks at the Ragya Monastery.

A local official was quoted as saying a search for monks, who took part in the assault, would continue.

The report said Mr Zhaxi Sangwu had “managed to run away from the police station on Saturday on the excuse of using the bathroom”. The man apparently swam across a river to escape and was still missing.

Last March’s protests by Buddhist monks led to the killing of 19 people and waves of protests across Tibetan areas. Groups of Tibetan exiles say more than 200 people died in the crackdown. (Reuters)