Beijing - A 12-day blockade of food and water to major monasteries in Lhasa by Chinese forces has killed a Buddhist monk of starvation, reported Tibetans in exile Wednesday. Monk Thokmey died on Monday in the Ramoche monastery in Lhasa, according to the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD). The Chinese military have not been allowing food and water into the monastery since March 14 and fires teargas into it frequently, the TCHRD said, citing reliable sources.
Many monasteries in Tibet are facing shortages of food, water, medicine as well as restrictions on movement.
The TCHRD said it is getting increasingly difficult to get details on specific incidences due to the restrictions placed by the Chinese authorities.
China'sban on foreign journalists traveling to the protest areas has made it extremely difficult to verify information.
The European Union Tuesday urged China to stop using force against Tibetan protesters and to lift restrictions to movement and information.
Slovenia's Ambassador Andrej Logar, who currently represents the seven-nation bloc at the UN body expressed his "deep concern" to reports over the continuing protests and said the demonstrations should be peaceful.
"We urge Chinese authorities to refrain from using force against those involved in unrest and call on demonstrators to desist from violence," Logar told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.
Chinese police Wednesday released a list of 53 Tibetans who are being sought in the violent unrest that broke out in Lhasa mid-March and have issued arrest warrants for 29 people there, the official news agency Xinhua reported.
As of late Tuesday, 280 people had surrendered to police in the Tibetan capital for involvement in anti-China riots that broke out there March 14, Xinhua said.
The Chinese government has said 19 Chinese were killed in the violence in Lhasa, but the India-based Tibetan government in exile said it confirmed the deaths of about 140 people there, many of them Tibetans shot by Chinese police.
Protests by Tibetans in China and other countries began March 10, the 49th anniversary of a failed uprising in Tibet against Chinese rule and escalated into riots four days later in Lhasa.
The protests and violence has since spread into neighbouring Sichuan, Qinghai and Gansu provinces.
