Chinese troops parade handcuffed Tibetan prisoners in trucks

The Chinese army drove through the streets of Lhasa today parading dozens of Tibetan prisoners in handcuffs, their heads bowed, as troops stepped up their hunt for the rioters in house-to-house searches.

As the midnight deadline approached for rioters to surrender, four trucks in convoy made a slow progress along main roads, with about 40 people, mostly young Tibetan men and women, standing with their wrists handcuffed behind their backs, witnesses said.

A soldier stood behind each prisoner, a hand on the back of their neck to ensure their heads were bowed.

Loudspeakers on the trucks broadcast calls to anyone who had taken part in the violent riots on Friday - in which Han Chinese and Hui Muslim were stabbed and beaten and shops and business set on fire - to turn themselves in.

Those who gave themselves up might be treated with leniency, the rest would face severe punishment, the broadcasts said.

The worst violence in 20 years in the deeply Buddhist Himalayan region has drawn a tough response from the Government, facing severe embarrassment as the riots threaten to tarnish its image of unity and stability just five months before it plays host to the Olympic Games in Beijing.

Claims and counterclaims from Chinese officials and Tibetan exiles over the number of casualties and a ban on foreign journalists in Tibet have resulted in much confusion.

Champa Phuntsok, the ethnic Tibetan governor of the Tibet Autonomous Region, said the demonstrations had left 16 dead and dozens wounded. Unconfirmed reports from Tibetan exile groups put the death toll at 80 – a claim he denied.

The governor said: “No country would allow those offenders or criminals to escape the arm of justice and China is no exception.”

Speaking in Beijing where he is attending the annual session of China’s rubber-stamp parliament, the governor said shops, schools, hospitals and banks had been attacked and bystanders beaten and set on fire.

“If these people turn themselves in, they will be treated with leniency within the framework of the law. If these people could provide further information about the involvement of other people in those crimes, then they could be treated even more leniently.. [otherwise] we will deal with them harshly.”

The search for those involved began in earnest in Lhasa today as office workers trickled back to work after a weekend of fear when most dared not go outside.

Soldiers launched house-to-house searches, checking all identification papers, residents said. Anyone unable to show an identity card and a household registration permitting residence in Lhasa was being taken away, they said.

The described people laying out all their papers on a table in their home. One said: “The soldiers come in and check that the number of people in each house equals the number of identity cards. Anyone extra may be taken away.”

At government offices and work units, leaders were required to do a roll call of all employees and to account for anyone missing as the authorities tried to track down those involved in the violence.

A notice from the Lhasa Municipal Procuratorate said: “Criminals who do not surrender by the deadline will be treated severely in accordance with the law.”

The unrest has spilt over rapidly into neighbouring provinces in China with a large ethnic Tibetan population. Tibetan students at the NorthWest Minorities University in Lanzhou staged an all-night sit-in at a school sports field before dispersing this morning.

In the nearby town of Hezuo in northwestern Gansu province, several dozen students from the Hezuo School of Hygiene took to the streets to demonstrate in sympathy for Tibetans in Lhasa but were quickly dispersed by police, school officials said.

The unrest in Tibet began when monks took to the streets on the March 10 anniversary of a 1959 uprising against Chinese rule when the Dalai Lama fled into exile in India and tens of thousands Tibetans.

Beijing has repeatedly said the violence was engineered by supporters of the Dalai Lama. He is still the region's widely revered spiritual leader and one of the figures most reviled by China’s communist leadership.