BEIJING – At least two people have died in fresh protests in a Tibetan part of western China, reports said on Tuesday according to Reuters, as authorities made arrests in Tibet’s capital Lhasa in an effort to reassert control over the restive region.
“The police were forced to fire warning shots, and dispersed the lawless mobsters,” the brief Xinhua news agency report said, without mentioning any deaths of protesters, who it said attacked with rocks and knives.
Meanwhile, French President Nicolas Sarkozy urged China on Tuesday to show responsibility over the unrest in Tibet and refused to rule out boycotting the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games.
“I don’t close the door to any option, but I think it’s more prudent to reserve my responses to concrete developments in the situation,” Sarkozy said, when asked about a possible boycott.
In Washington, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino, reacting to Sarkozy’s remarks on the Olympics, said there was no change in Bush’s plans to attend the Games.
“We believe that China should respect minority cultures — particularly in this case, the Tibetan culture — and we want to make sure that there is freedom of the press and international access to the area,” Perino said.
The ongoing unrest in Tibet and China’s response to it – heightens prospects of worldwide protests as the Olympic torch circles the globe.
