Friday, 27 February , 2009, 18:45

Beijing: Paramilitary police Friday sealed off a monastery in western
China after more than 100 Tibetan monks staged a protest outside local
government offices, US-based Radio Free Asia reported.

The Buddhist monks from Lutsang monastery in Qinghai province marched to
the offices in Guinan county (Mangra in Tibetan), issued a demand for
greater government understanding and held a 30-minute candlelit vigil,
local residents and a former monk told the broadcaster.

China begins moves to pre-empt new Tibetan stir

The brief protest took place early Wednesday morning, on the first day
of the traditional Tibetan lunar new year festival, or Losar, the report
said.

The broadcaster showed a photograph on its website of hooded monks
holding candles under a gate bearing the Chinese and Tibetan sign
"Qinghai Province Guinan County People's Government."

It said police issued a notice Friday ordering the leaders of the
protest to surrender to local authorities and threatened to deal more
severely with those who failed to turn themselves in.

China targets Dalai Lama with slavery charges

The broadcaster quoted an unidentified source as saying Lutsang
monastery was "surrounded by a force of the People's Armed Police" and
that no one was allowed in or out.

Many monks in Qinghai and other Tibetan areas of China appear to have
heeded calls by Tibetan exile groups to boycott this year's Losar
celebrations.

Chinese authorities have increased security in many Tibetan areas in the
run-up to the anniversaries of widespread rioting last year and the 50th
anniversary of the flight into exile of the Dalai Lama.

Independence or autonomy: Tibetan dilemma continues

Several other small protests were reported in Tibetan areas this month.

Police in Litang town, which is part of Ganzi in Sichuan province, last
week arrested about 20 people after small protests, a Tibetan exile
group said.

Last year's protests began in Lhasa, the capital of the Tibet Autonomous
Region, on March 10, the 49th anniversary of a failed Tibetan uprising
against Chinese rule.

The government said 19 people were killed in the rioting but the Tibetan
government-in-exile said up to 200 people were killed, most of them
Tibetans shot by Chinese paramilitary police.

No further talks with China: Tibetans in exile

Last week China said 76 people were sentenced to prison for their role
in the Lhasa rioting.