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BEIJING: Foreign diplomats demanded unfettered access in Lhasa Saturday after authorities allowed them to visit the riot-torn city amid debate in Europe on a possible boycott of the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony.
Two weeks after protests in the Himalayan region turned deadly, diplomats from 15 embassies, including those of the United States, Britain, France and Japan, arrived in the Tibetan capital for a hastily arranged one-day tour.
"This visit is a good first step, but does not go far enough to meet the request for unfettered access," one Western diplomat in Beijing told AFP after being briefed on the trip.
"Obviously this has been a highly-managed visit."
Upon arrival to Lhasa Friday evening, the diplomats met with the chairman of Tibet's government Qiangba Puncog, visited wounded paramilitary police in hospital and chatted with ordinary Tibetans, he said.
On Saturday morning, the diplomats were allowed to visit the Jokhang Temple, one of Tibetan Buddhism's most sacred shrines, where monks converged on a government-arranged foreign media delegation on Wednesday and denounced China's rule of Tibet, he added.
"The chairman of Tibet reassured them (diplomats) that the monks would not be punished" for their Wednesday protest, the diplomat said.
China announced the trip late Thursday night, giving the diplomats only hours to prepare for the long flight to the Himalayan region.
"They will carry out on-the-spot investigation of the real facts of the... serious and violent criminal incident," the foreign ministry said.
It said other countries sending diplomatic representatives on the trip included Australia, Brazil, Canada, Italy, Russia, Singapore, Spain and Tanzania.
India and Pakistan were also invited, but apparently declined due to the sensitivity of the Tibetan issue for China's close neighbours, other diplomats here said.
Western diplomats, who were expected back in Beijing late Saturday, were unlikely to comment on the trip until after they had briefed their respective governments, they said.
The ongoing unrest in Tibet began on March 10 to mark the anniversary of a failed 1959 uprising against Chinese rule, an event that saw the Dalai Lama -- who Friday called again for talks with Beijing -- to flee to India where he has since lived in exile.
Unrest erupted into widespread rioting in Lhasa on March 14, and spread to neighbouring Chinese provinces populated by Tibetans.
As China's crackdown escalated, so too has the response of the outside world.
At the start of two days of talks in Slovenia on Friday, EU foreign ministers were split on the idea of boycotting the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony over Tibet, but keen for China to open talks with the Dalai Lama.
"You can be sure that information on the trip is being passed to the foreign ministers at (the) meeting," one diplomat here said.
Beijing says rioters killed 18 civilians and two police officers during the unrest.
Exiled Tibetan leaders have put the death toll from the Chinese crackdown at between 135 and 140, with another 1,000 people injured and many detained. - AFP/ac
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