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BEIJING: China said on Tuesday that two Tibetans had been executed for their role in deadly ethnic unrest that rocked the Himalayan region last year - the first known use of capital punishment over the violence.
The confirmation by foreign ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu came after several overseas activist groups had reported that up to four Tibetans were shot dead by Chinese firing squads over the violence that erupted in March 2008.
"The two criminals who were executed were found guilty in accordance with the law in both a first trial and an appeals trial," Ma told reporters.
"China's judiciary handled the cases in strict accordance with the law," he said, noting that the verdicts had been reviewed by the Supreme Court.
Ma said he was unaware of the executions of two other Tibetans reported by the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy.
Judicial authorities in the Tibetan regional capital Lhasa, contacted repeatedly by AFP, refused to comment on the cases.
Fierce anti-China protests erupted in Lhasa and spread across Tibet and adjacent areas with Tibetan populations in March last year, embarrassing the government in Beijing as it prepared to host the Summer Olympics.
Beijing blamed the Dalai Lama - the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader seen by authorities as a splittist bent on independence - for inciting the unrest. But the Buddhist monk insists he only wants greater regional autonomy for Tibet.
China has said "rioters" were responsible for 21 deaths, while its security forces killed only one "insurgent". But the exiled Tibetan government has said more than 200 Tibetans were killed in the subsequent crackdown.
State media said in April that two people had been sentenced to death over the violence, the first such penalties reported.
The top Communist Party leader in Tibet, Zhang Qingli, has said the fight against separatism in the region remained "very serious" more than a year after the unrest, state media reported on Tuesday.
In a speech in Lhasa this week, Zhang urged all levels of government, as well as the military, to step up efforts to ensure public order, the Tibet Daily reported.
"Since 2005, we have made important contributions to safeguard overall social stability by hitting hard and preventing (separatism) and by building a solid line of defence to strike at hostile people," Zhang said.
But, "at present the anti-separatist struggle in our region remains very serious", the paper quoted him as saying.
China has ruled Tibet since 1951 after sending in troops to "liberate" the region the previous year and Beijing has long maintained that its rule ended a Buddhist theocracy that enslaved all but the religious elite.
- AFP/sc
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