March 18 (Bloomberg) -- China denounced protesters in Tibet as criminals as United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called for restraint in dealing with the biggest demonstrations in the Himalayan region in 20 years.
The unrest that began March 10 was a violent crime rather than a peace demonstration, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said late yesterday, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. China said 13 people were killed by rioters while Tibet's parliament-in-exile said the unrest left ``hundreds'' of people dead.
China blamed secessionist supporters of Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, for trying to divide the country and attacking Chinese diplomatic missions abroad. The protests erupted in Tibet's capital, Lhasa, as China prepares to stage the Olympic Games in Beijing in August.
Ban called ``on all concerned to avoid further confrontation and violence,'' when he met Wang Guangya, China's UN ambassador, in New York yesterday. Events in Tibet shouldn't be linked to the staging of the Olympics, Ban said.
Buddhist monks led protests in monasteries outside Lhasa yesterday, the Central Tibetan Administration, the government- in-exile, said in a statement on its Web site. Police, brought in by trucks, were unable to ``suppress the protests'' in Medro Gonkar County where all schools and shops were closed, it said.
Lhasa Deadline
A deadline set by the authorities for protesters in Lhasa to turn themselves in expired at midnight local time yesterday without any sign of arrests or people surrendering, the Associated Press reported.
Demonstrations took place in Sichuan, Qinghai and Gansu provinces two days ago, AP said earlier. A group of Tibetan students held a sit-in at Beijing's Central University for Nationalities late yesterday, Xinhua reported. They returned to their dormitories before midnight, it said.
The protests have led to the ``deaths of hundreds of Tibetans,'' the Tibetan parliament-in-exile said in a faxed statement yesterday. The ``use of force'' by Chinese authorities ``needs to be brought to the attention of the United Nations and the international community,'' it said in the statement issued in the northern Indian town of Dharamshala, home to the Tibetan government-in-exile.
The unrest in Tibet exposed the hypocrisy of the Dalai Lama's ``peace'' and ``non-violence,'' Liu said in a statement, according to Xinhua ``We strongly condemn the atrocities committed by the `Tibet independence' forces.''
Protest March
The unrest began when Buddhist monks marched in Lhasa calling for an end to religious restrictions and the release of imprisoned colleagues. The demonstration marked the anniversary of a failed Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule in 1959, after which the Dalai Lama fled to India.
The Dalai Lama on March 16 accused China of committing ``cultural genocide'' in Tibet and condemned what he called its ``rule of terror.''
Police showed restraint in dealing with the protests, Qiangba Puncog, chairman of the Tibet provincial government, said yesterday. Thirteen civilians were burned or stabbed to death by protesters in Lhasa on March 14 and the Dalai Lama's portrayal of the demonstrations as peaceful was ``ridiculous,'' Qiangba told reporters in Beijing.
Conditions in Lhasa returned to normal yesterday with traffic resuming and schools, government offices and markets opening, Doje Cezhug, the city's mayor, told Xinhua.
Tibet had varying degrees of autonomy from China until the Chinese Communist Party came to power in 1949. It deployed troops there a year later and annexed the region in 1951.
The protests are the largest in the region since pro- independence demonstrations in 1989 prompted President Hu Jintao, who was then head of the region's Communist Party, to declare martial law.
Tibet is an inalienable part of China, which the international community acknowledges, Liu said yesterday, according to Xinhua. China will safeguard its sovereignty and territorial integrity, he added.
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