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BEIJING: China has beefed up security in Tibet's capital as the region marks the sensitive anniversaries of a failed 1959 uprising against Chinese rule and bloody 2008 riots, residents said on Wednesday.
Tibet has been under heavy security since the anti-China riots two years ago, but police patrols and resulting tension have both recently increased in Lhasa, residents told AFP by phone.
"There are patrols outside every day and they have been stepped up," said a staffer at the Jin Cheng International Business Hotel in Lhasa, who gave only her surname Li.
"There are two or three armed police on duty at every intersection."
An uprising against Chinese rule of the Buddhist Himalayan region erupted on March 10, 1959, but was crushed by China within weeks, forcing the Dalai Lama, Tibet's spiritual leader, to flee into exile.
China calls the defeat of the uprising the beginning of Tibet's "democratic reform" away from its "feudal" days, but retains an iron grip in the region.
Protests took place on the uprising's 2008 anniversary, escalating in subsequent days into violent riots across Tibet and neighbouring regions with significant populations of ethnic Tibetans.
China responded with a security clampdown that has been in place ever since.
"It is a little tense. There are a lot of patrols," said a female staff member at the Xue Yu Hotel.
She said both uniformed and plainclothes security were out in force.
Given the tense situation, the hotel had decided to close until March 21, she said.
The Zaxiquta Hotel also had ceased taking bookings until next week due to the tension in the region, a male staffer told AFP.
"We don't have many clients now, only four. But we have more than 70 beds," he said, without giving his name.
He added guests were returning before nightfall but none of the people contacted by AFP reported any government curfew or other security notices being issued.
China on Tuesday accused the Dalai Lama of trying to "create chaos" in Tibet.
"If there were no anti-China forces or no Dalai to destroy and create chaos, Tibet would be better off than it is today," the region's Communist Party secretary Zhang Qingli said on a government website.
China has said 21 people were killed by "rioters" in 2008, while security forces killed only one "insurgent."
But Tibetan exile leaders say more than 200 people were killed and 1,000 hurt in the unrest and subsequent crackdown in the remote region.
At least 5,700 people were arrested in connection with the unrest, the government has said, with many Buddhist monks given long prison terms.
China views the Dalai Lama as a separatist and blames him for unrest in Tibet. The 1989 Nobel Peace Prize winner has denied such accusations, saying he seeks only meaningful autonomy for the region, not independence. - AFP/de
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