CHINA:PROTESTERS SHOUTING "Free Tibet" burned shops and cars in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, yesterday as the most violent disturbances in the Himalayan enclave in two decades continued, with reports of shootings.
"The situation is very tense. Everyone is very afraid," said one witness to the events unfolding in Lhasa. Radio Free Asia reported that Chinese police fired on rioting Tibetan protesters, killing at least two people.
Major monasteries remained surrounded by soldiers and police.
One Han Chinese woman, who was in Lhasa on business, said she had seen tanks on the street, but her report could not be confirmed, and it was not clear whether she meant tanks or armoured personnel carriers. She said she could not elaborate as the police were everywhere in her hotel.
At 8am yesterday in the Barkhor area of Lhasa, hundreds of Tibetans demonstrated, led by four students from Lhasa University.
More than 1,000 police were deployed, using tear gas to disperse the demonstrators. There were clashes and four police were injured, the Free Tibet Campaign said.
Demonstrations took place in front of the Potala Palace, the iconic edifice that is the symbol of both Lhasa's strength and its isolation.
There were reports that two people had died in the melee in Lhasa, and Washington, the EU and the Dalai Lama urged the Chinese government to respond in a restrained manner to the riots.
There were demonstrations at the Ranpoche monastery, where the week's demonstrations began with peaceful street protests on Monday as monks marked the 49th anniversary of the failed uprising against Chinese rule that culminated in the Dalai Lama's exile.
The protests are the biggest since the late 1980s, when riots led to martial law.
Back then, China's current president, Hu Jintao, was the Communist Party chief in Tibet. Signs of defiance in Tibet come just five months before the Olympic Games in Beijing, when the eyes of the world will be on China. Tibetan activists are expected to use the attention to highlight their cause.
In the past few days there have been violent clashes amid widespread frustration among the Tibetans at what they see as Han Chinese efforts to colonise Tibet.
One Han Chinese woman said she and her husband had been attacked, and demonstrators had thrown stones at them.
A Chinese-owned gold and silver jewellery shop called Serkhang had been burned down by demonstrators and was surrounded by several police vehicles.
Some of the biggest demonstrations took place in the remote monastery town of Xiahe in China's Gansu province, in the mainly Tibetan Amdo region. Three million Tibetans live in Chinese territory outside the Tibetan autonomous region.
Here witnesses described how hundreds of monks marched to the Xiahe government offices and sat down outside the building. Some flew Tibetan national flags.
Witnesses said the police opened fire to disperse the protesters and that monks had been injured in clashes.
The monastery has been sealed off and truckloads of People's Armed Police are being brought in from Lanzhou to Xiahe.
I visited this town shortly after demonstrations on October 17th to celebrate the Dalai Lama being awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, when there had been clashes. There is tension in the town between the Tibetans and Han Chinese.
Labrang is home to the Living Buddha, who is third in rank in the Tibetan Buddhist hierarchy after the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama.
The US told China to act with restraint when dealing with protesters in Tibet and again asked Beijing to talk to the Dalai Lama.
The US ambassador to China, Clark Randt, used a meeting with senior Chinese officials in Beijing to formally voice US concerns over violence in Lhasa, state department spokesman Seán McCormack said.