China vowed strict security for the Olympic torch relay through restive Tibet on Monday as protesters tried to disrupt the torch lighting ceremony in Greece, clouding Beijing's hopes of the relay symbolising national unity.
Three human rights demonstrators tried to interrupt the ceremony in ancient Olympia while the Beijing Games organising chief was speaking. The protesters were quickly detained and Chinese state media made no mention of the brief incident.
Paris-based Reporters without Frontiers, a press freedom group, said it had staged the demonstration and would continue to protest until the Games opened in Beijing on August 8. Beijing has stepped up its drive to rally support for the Games in response to international attention on Tibet. But Monday's protest in Greece was a sign of challenges to come as the torch circles the globe.
China blames the unrest on the Dalai Lama, Tibetan Buddhism's spiritual leader. "The political monk's statement of supporting the Beijing Olympic Games has been proven a lie; his followers boycotted the torch relay and resorted to violence in Lhasa and elsewhere," the official Xinhua news agency said of the Dalai Lama.
The government has also sought to contain dissent elsewhere. On Monday, a Chinese court sentenced an unemployed factory worker to five years in jail on charges of inciting subversion. Yang Chunlin's family and lawyer said he had called for human rights to take precedence over the Olympic Games.
ARSON CHARGE: China alleges the exiled Dalai Lama conspired to wreck the Games and masterminded the wave of protests that began with peaceful rallies in Tibet's capital Lhasa on March 10, the 49th anniversary of a failed uprising against Chinese rule.
Five days later, the marches erupted into a riot in Lhasa that China says killed 19. The Tibetan government-in-exile in India raised its death toll in the clashes to 130 on Monday. China has barred foreign journalists from Tibet and surrounding areas, making independent verification of the reports difficult.
Police spokeswoman Shan Huimin said five people had been detained in Lhasa in relation to arson during the riot. She said three Tibetan women in their twenties faced arson charges and had confessed their crimes. In the case of the other two, the investigation was still ongoing and the charges unspecified.
"These two arson cases once again show the March 14 incident was not a peaceful demonstration or a peaceful protest. It was entirely a serious violent incident," she told a news conference. Since the Lhasa unrest, demonstrations have flared throughout ethnic Tibetan parts of China, leading to violence. The Dalai Lama rejects China's claim that.
GERMAN DECISION: Overseas advocates of Tibetan independence have said they will seek to protest against the Olympics, and especially against the torch relay through the troubled region. But in a boost to Beijing, Germany's Olympic Committee decided not to boycott the Games, though it expressed concerns about the violence in Tibet.
In a departure from the government line, Bao Tong, the most senior Chinese official ousted over the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, said the Dalai Lama was the "only Tibetan leader with the hope of presiding over a reconciliation agreement".
"Only if the central (government) sits down for dialogue with the Dalai Lama and shows great wisdom, great decisiveness and great boldness of vision, the Lhasa incident can be handled well," Bao wrote in a statement e-mailed to Reuters. On Monday, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged the Chinese government to talk to the Dalai Lama.
"We believe that the answer for Tibet is to have a more sustainable policy for the Chinese government concerning Tibet." Rice told a news conference In Washington. In Paris, President Nicolas Sarkozy called for an end to the violence in Tibet, and said France would be willing to facilitate talks between China and the Dalai Lama's envoys.
Two opinion polls on Monday showed a majority of French people in favour of a boycott of the Olympic opening ceremony. China has invested huge amounts of money and political capital to make the Olympics a national showcase. But two overseas groups reported protests in Tibetan enclaves of China over the weekend, in Qinghai and Gansu provinces, contradicting government claims that the areas have been quiet since last Thursday.
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