China jails Tibetan rioters as torch reaches Vietnam

By Nick Mulvenney Reuters - Tuesday, April 29 09:03 am

EVEREST BASE CAMP, China (Reuters) - A Chinese court jailed 17 people for terms ranging from three years to life on Tuesday for their roles in Tibet's deadly riots, which triggered anti-China protests ahead of the Beijing Olympics.

China has blamed Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, and his government-in-exile for plotting the riots, in which at least 18 "innocent civilians", according to Beijing, were killed by Tibetan mobs in the regional capital, Lhasa, last month.

Lhasa Intermediate People's Court announced the verdicts at an "open trial" attended by more than 200 people, including Buddhist monks, medical workers and "masses from all walks of life", state television said.

It was the first batch of sentences announced since the March 14 violence and a Chinese crackdown that led to disruption of the global torch relay, most notably in London, Paris and San Francisco.

Seven schools, five hospitals and 120 homes were set ablaze and 908 shops looted in the violence, Xinhua said. Total damage was more than 244 million yuan (17.6 million pounds).

The around-the-world torch relay has also prompted rallies by Chinese, proud at hosting the Olympics and their efforts to modernise Tibet.

The torch arrived in Vietnam on Monday night under tight security as activists said they planned demonstrations over Hanoi and Beijing's competing claims for South China Sea islands.

Scores of Chinese and Vietnamese with national flags and Beijing 2008 Olympics flags greeted the torch at Ho Chi Minh City airport as it arrived from Communist ally North Korea.

The torch was to be paraded in the city on Tuesday evening.

A special Olympic flame arrived at Mount Everest base camp on Monday, before making an ascent to the summit of the world's tallest mountain. But Chinese officials were keeping reporters in the dark about the progress of this torch -- or torches, as the case may be.

"I can confirm that the lantern with the flame is in the hands of the mountaineers, but I cannot tell you whether there are climbers on the mountain yet," said

Shao Shiwei, deputy director of the media department of the Beijing Organising Committee for the Olympic Games, said on Monday night the flame was with the mountaineers, but he could not say if they were on the mountain.

"There is not only one flame, there are many flames," he added. "There are many back-up flames and they did not tell us which one is going to go to the peak. We are working with prudence because the whole world is watching."

Witnessing this spectacle were 11 foreign journalists who China has allowed to accompany the special flame procession. A Hong Kong reporter was forced to leave the base camp on Monday because of altitude illness.

Some Western politicians have urged world leaders to boycott the opening ceremony of the Olympics, a sentiment echoed by a Nobel Peace laureate, Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa.

The European Parliament has also urged EU leaders to boycott the opening ceremony unless China started talks with the Dalai Lama.

Seemingly bowing to international pressure, Beijing said last Friday it would hold talks with envoys of the Dalai Lama.

(Additional reporting by Grant McCool in Hanoi; Writing by Nick Macfie; Editing by Bill Tarrant)

("Countdown to Beijing Olympics" blog at

http://blogs.reuters.com/china)

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