Beijing - The Tibetan government in exile said it had confirmed at least 80 deaths in rioting in Lhasa, as Tibetan independence protests continued in monastery towns in western China on Sunday - and the Dalai Lama said he had "grave concerns" that more bloodshed could follow. The German newspaper Frankfurter Rundschau reported that staff from international non-governmental organisations were ordered to leave Lhasa by Monday, raising fears that troops could toughen their crackdown on the protesters once a deadline for protesters to surrender passes at midnight on Monday.
"As the Tibet uprising continues reliable sources have confirmed that at least 80 people were killed on March 14, 2008 in Lhasa," the government in exile, based in the Indian city of Dharamsala, said in a statement.
The Dalai Lama, the highest leader of Tibetan Buddhism, told the BBC that the situation in Tibetan areas of China had become "very, very tense."
"Now today and yesterday, the Tibetan side is determined. The Chinese side also equally determined. So that means, the result: killing, more suffering," the broadcaster quoted him as saying.
The Dalai Lama said the Chinese government should stop "clinging to its policy" of relying on force to control Tibetans because "they cannot control human minds."
Paramilitary police shot dead at least seven protesters during clashes with hundreds of monks and lay Tibetans on Sunday afternoon that began at the Kirti monastery in Ngaba county, Sichuan province, the India-based Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy reported.
Hundreds of people were also known to have been injured in the clashes after a "peaceful demonstration by thousands of people," the centre said in a statement, citing eyewitness accounts.
One resident of Lhasa, the capital of China's Tibet Autonomous Region, said hundreds of Tibetans were continuing protests in the city despite a military crackdown after riots erupted on Friday.
Tibetan protesters took to the streets Saturday night, shouting that they wanted to rid Lhasa of all Chinese people, a Chinese resident told Deutsche Presse-Agentur
