Monks burst in on Tibet news briefing

A group of Tibetan monks disrupted an official news briefing at a key temple in Lhasa on Thursday, accusing Chinese authorities of lying after more than two weeks of unrest in the Himalayan region, witnesses said.

The Chinese government brought a select group of foreign and Chinese reporters to Lhasa on Wednesday for a stage managed three-day tour of the city that was rocked by anti-Chinese violence on March 14 to show that stability had been restored.

The group of monks at the Jokhang Temple, the most sacred temple in Tibet and a top tourist stop in central Lhasa, barged into a briefing by the head of the temple's administrative office.

"About 30 young monks burst into the official briefing, shouting: 'Don't believe them. They are tricking you. They are telling lies'," USA Today reporter Callum MacLeod said by telephone from Lhasa.

Another reporter said some of the monks asserted that they had been unable to leave the Jokhang Temple since March 10.

A third journalist on the trip, Wang Che-nan, a cameraman for Taiwan's ETTV said the incident lasted about 15 minutes, after which unarmed police took the Tibetans to another area of the temple, away from the journalists.

It was unclear what happened to them next, the reporter said. Police and government minders did not confiscate notes or film from reporters but told them to move on. "They said: 'Your time is up, time to go to the next place'," Wang said.

Reuters was not invited on the government-run trip.

The state-run Xinhua news agency said only that the media tour had been "disrupted" by monks, known as lamas in Tibet, but that it got back on track swiftly and that Lhasa was returning to normal after the unrest.

The Tibetan unrest and China's response are at the centre of an international storm ahead of the Olympics in August.

U.S. President George W. Bush encouraged Chinese President Hu Jintao on Wednesday to talk with the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual leader.

Hu said the monk must renounce support for independence of Tibet and Taiwan and stop encouraging violence and illegal activities aimed at harming the Olympics.

RIOTS, PROTESTS

The Dalai Lama denies he wants anything more than greater autonomy for his homeland and has criticised the violent protests, but he said on Thursday the Olympics were a chance for the world to remind China of its human rights record.

"In order to be a good host to the Olympic Games, China must improve its record in the field of human rights and religious freedom," the Tibetan spiritual leader told India's NDTV news channel in an interview to be aired on Friday.

"It's very logical, very reasonable."

The unrest began with peaceful marches by Buddhist monks in Lhasa more than two weeks ago. Within days, riots erupted in which non-Tibetan Chinese migrants were attacked and their property burned until security forces filled the streets.

Protests have spread to parts of Chinese provinces that border Tibet and have large ethnic Tibetan populations.

China says 19 people were killed at the hands of Tibetan mobs. The Tibetan government-in-exile says 140 died in Lhasa and elsewhere - most of them Tibetan victims of security forces.

China has poured troops into the region, and Human Rights Watch said the United Nations human rights council should address the crisis in Tibet.

Human Rights Watch said Australia, the European Union, Switzerland and the United States raised human rights abuses in Tibet during a session of the U.N. Human Rights Council, but China blocked debate, backed by Algeria, Cuba, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe.

"The council has not only the right, but the obligation to address the Tibet crisis," a statement quoted Juliette de Rivero, Geneva advocacy director at Human Rights Watch, as saying.

"It's scandalous that the council ends up silencing those who are trying to make sure it does its job."

Meanwhile, Beijing continued its propaganda blitz and Xinhua quoted "living Buddhas" condemning other monks who participated in the March 14 upheaval.

"According to Buddhist karma, they cannot reincarnate after death because of the sin they have committed," said Chubakang Tubdain Kaizhub, head of the Tibetan chapter of the Buddhist Association of China.

Taiwan's outgoing President Chen Shui-bian called for people to stand up "in the name of universal human rights, positively show they care, and light a candle for the people of Tibet".