In this image taken with a mobile device, made available by the Indian Branch of Students for a Free Tibet, which purports to show pedestrians walking amid Chinese law enforcement, Friday, March 14, 2008, in Sangchu County, Kanlho ‘Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture’, Gansu Province, China.



Protests turn violent in Tibetan capital


By TINI TRAN, Associated Press Writer
BEIJING - Protests led by Buddhist monks against Chinese rule in Tibet turned violent Friday, with shops and vehicles torched and gunshots echoing through the streets of the ancient capital, Lhasa. A radio report said two people had been killed…
The demonstrations turned violent Friday when witnesses reported hearing gunfire and seeing vehicles in flames in the city’s main shopping district in the center of Lhasa. Crowds hurled rocks at security forces and at restaurant and hotel windows.
Radio Free Asia, which is funded by the U.S. government, quoted witnesses as saying two bodies were seen lying on the ground in the Barkor area, a shopping district in the old city where the protests have been centered.
The protests that began on Monday’s anniversary of a 1959 uprising against Chinese rule were initially led by hundreds of Buddhist monks, but also attracted large numbers of ordinary Tibetans. They were spreading to Tibetan areas outside Lhasa, a city of about 250,000 permanent residents, not including large numbers of soldiers and members of China’s paramilitary People’s Armed Police…

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