BEIJING -- Thousands of Chinese soldiers and police were surrounding two Buddhist monasteries in Lhasa this week in an effort to crush the biggest wave of street protests by Tibetan monks since the 1980s.The bold demonstrations, which erupted on Monday and continued for much of this week, took a dramatic turn Thursday when it was reported that two Tibetan monks had slit their wrists in an attempted suicide protest. The monks, from Drepung monastery on the outskirts of Lhasa, were in critical condition in hospital, according to a report by Radio Free Asia.Monks at other Tibetan monasteries, meanwhile, have launched new protests and a hunger strike to demand the withdrawal of Chinese paramilitary troops and the release of detained monks, RFA reported.The protests are believed to be the first political rallies by Buddhist monks in Lhasa in more than a decade, and the biggest to hit the Tibetan capital since demonstrations in 1989 that led to the imposition of martial law.With less than five months remaining until the Beijing Olympics, the Chinese government is eager to avoid any embarrassing outbreaks of rebellion in its restive minority regions. The Chinese authorities are especially worried about the Tibetan monks, who enjoy considerable sympathy and support from around the world.The rare wave of demonstrations began on Monday when about 500 monks from Drepung monastery held a protest march in Lhasa to mark the 49th anniversary of a Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule. The uprising in 1959 was crushed by Chinese soldiers, and the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, fled to India.Several dozen of the protesting monks were detained by police on Monday, but other monks staged a sit-down protest, calling for religious freedom and the release of detained monks.In another remarkable incident, a small group of monks brought the banned Tibetan flag to Lhasa's historic center. It was reportedly the first time that the flag had been displayed by protesters in Lhasa since a 1988 incident in which the flag-bearers were shot dead on the spot.On the second day of the protests this week, China deployed about 2,000 security personnel to suppress the marches by about 600 monks from Sera monastery. They fired tear gas to disperse the monks.The protests soon spread to another Tibetan region in neighboring Qinghai province, where monks at two monasteries held demonstrations.The Tibetan monks in Lhasa, taking a page from the tactics of Buddhist monks who marched in Myanmar last year, used the Internet and cell phones to send photos and audio recordings of their protests to exiled Tibetans in India, who quickly posted the images and sounds on the Internet.Chinese officials, in an unusual development, confirmed publicly that the protests had taken place, although they condemned them as a conspiracy by the Dalai Lama's supporters.China also announced that it is closing the north face of Mount Everest and banning any expeditions until after the Olympic torch has ascended the mountain in early May, apparently because it fears a pro-Tibet protest on the peak, as happened last year.A group of Tibetan exiles in India, meanwhile, has been trying to march to the Tibetan border. But Indian police arrested around 100 of them as they approached a Himalayan district of India.(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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