Beijing - China on Monday expelled journalists from Lhasa, the capital of its Tibet Autonomous Region, and suspended permits for foreigners to travel to the region as a Tibetan exile group reported mass arrests ahead of a deadline for protesters to surrender to police. Officials stopped issuing travel permits, which are not required for any other Chinese region, because of "safety concerns," Qiangba Puncog, chairman of the regional government, told reporters in Beijing.
"We also suggest foreign tourists now in Tibet leave in the coming days," state media quoted Ju Jianhua, head of the region's foreign affairs office, as saying.
China also rejected calls to allow international observers into Tibet and blamed the Dalai Lama for encouraging pro-independence protests.
International observers were not acceptable "because it is a completely internal affair," Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said of the protests.
The protests escalated into violence and rioting on Friday in Lhasa, the capital of China's Tibet Autonomous region, but Liu said security forces had responded "in a civilized manner."
"No bullet has been fired. No lethal weapon has been used," Liu told reporters just hours before a deadline for protesters in Lhasa to surrender to police or face more severe punishment.
China also expelled journalists from Lhasa with reporters from at least six Hong Kong media groups ordered to leave by plane Monday, according to the Hong Kong Journalists' Association.
The association called the expulsion "unacceptable" and said it contravened new government regulations allowing greater access for foreign journalists ahead of this year's Beijing Olympics.
The Foreign Correspondents' Club of China said it had details of two dozen foreign reporters who were expelled from Lhasa and other Tibetan areas.
Liu said the exclusion of journalists from Lhasa was "only natural" because it was "quite unstable" in the city.
"The Chinese government has nothing to conceal," he said. "What happened is very clear."
Chinese officials on Monday said 13 people had died in Friday's rioting, but the Tibetan government in exile said it had confirmed at least 80 deaths in the city.
"We have compelling evidence that the Dalai Lama was behind it," Liu said of the violence without elaborating.
"The Dalai Lama has never abandoned his position of seeking independence for Tibet," he said.
China refuses to hold direct dialogue with the Dalai Lama and regularly protests his contacts with world leaders.
US George W Bush and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who both met the Dalai Lama last year, are among the world leaders who have urged China to hold dialogue with him over the recent unrest.
In addition to expulsions of journalists, the Foreign Correspondents' Club of China said extended government censorship of the internet and international television broadcasts since the protests began last week was also hampering journalists.
"The interference in reporting activities is not in keeping with the temporary Olympic period reporting regulations, and is especially not in keeping with the international community's expectations of an Olympic host nation," club president Melinda Liu said.
The German newspaper Frankfurter Rundschau reported that staff from international non-governmental organizations were also ordered to leave Lhasa by Monday, raising fears that troops could toughen their crackdown on the protestors once a deadline for protestors to surrender passed at midnight on Monday.
The India-based Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy on Monday said that paramilitary police had already arrested hundreds of Tibetans over the weekend in Lhasa.
The police reportedly detained all former political prisoners and conducted house-to-house searches, focussing on young Tibetan men.
Many Tibetan residents reported young men from their families being "beaten and dragged away" by security forces, the centre said.
Lhasa residents confirmed to Deutsche Presse-Agentur
