By AUDRA ANG

KANGDING, China (RushPRNews) March 11,09-Tibetan monks walk past heavily armed paramilitary police on a streets of Kangding, Ganzi (Tib: Kardze) prefecture in Sichuan province Tuesday, March 10, 2009. Authorities closed the last window into a restive Tibetan region in western China, tightening its security cordon for the 50th anniversary of the failed uprising that sent the Dalai Lama into exile.

Authorities closed the last window into a restive Tibetan region in western China, tightening its security cordon for the 50th anniversary of the failed uprising that sent the Dalai Lama into exile. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
— Paramilitary police and soldiers swarmed cities and villages in Tibet and restive western China on Tuesday, on the alert for possible unrest on the 50th anniversary of the failed uprising that sent the Dalai Lama into exile.

China sought to head off trouble on the anniversary of the 1959 abortive Tibetan revolt against Beijing’s rule and a peaceful commemoration last year that spiraled into violent demonstrations by Tibetans. Troops have poured into Tibet and Tibetan communities in surrounding provinces to smother any protests.

On Tuesday in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa — where the uprisings of 1959 and 2008 started — was calm but tense, as was the rest of the region. Residents and businesses reported seeing increased patrols of armed police throughout the city. Tibetans and travelers in western China said police stepped up checks of identity cards.

“There are more paramilitary police in the streets. They’re at bus stations, road intersections, even small alleys,” said a staffer at the West Tour Go tourism agency in the capital, who declined to give his name for fear of drawing reprisals from the government, which has sought to hide the clampdown.

Heavily armed paramilitary police patrol a street of Kangding (Dardo), Ganzi (Kardze) prefecture in Sichuan province on Tuesday, March 10, 2009. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

In neighboring Sichuan’s Ganzi prefecture, where some of the most violent protests occurred last year, rows of riot police and soldiers with machine-guns marched through the middle of Kangding town past the main square.

The night before, local Communist Party official Xiang Luo had exhorted paramilitary troops to be especially vigilant: “You must do this month’s work well. This is crucial.”

China’s governor of Tibet, Champa Phuntsok, in Beijing for the national legislature’s meeting, was quoted as saying that he spoke by phone to Lhasa and “that the whole city is stable and troops are in normal state as usual.”

Accounts from across Tibetan communities described higher police presence in recent days, though verifying the situation was difficult. Foreign tourists and reporters are banned from all but a few parts of the area — about a quarter of China’s territory. Internet and mobile phone text-messaging services were also spotty, as authorities tried to deny activists key tools used to spread word of last year’s protests.

Lhasa residents received text messages from service provider China Mobile saying that calls and text messages may experience disruptions between March 10 and May 1 “due to networks improvement.” A customer service representative at the company’s Lhasa office confirmed the message.

In other Tibetan cities, residents described stricter identification checks for Tibetans and hotel guests. “Any Tibetan from Qinghai or Ganzi or other areas who wants to stay must show their ID cards, but this rule doesn’t apply to ethnic Chinese,” said a woman at the Changdu Hotel in Changdu city.

In Tsedang, Tibet’s third-largest town, two hours southeast of Lhasa, a staffer at the Shannan Yulong Holiday Hotel said the heightened security has been in place since last week.

“Police come to check out our registration for people staying in the hotel every day. … Even though it seems relatively quiet, we can feel that the security is very tight now,” said the staffer, who declined to give a name for fear of reprisal

AP Photo/Ng Han Guan

source: playul