BEIJING—About 30 Tibetan monks burst into a rare news briefing at a key temple in Lhasa on Thursday, saying the authorities were lying about the situation after more than two weeks of unrest in the Himalayan region, a witness said.
The Chinese government brought a small group of foreign and Chinese reporters to Lhasa on Wednesday for a stage managed three-day tour of the city that was rocked by anti-Chinese violence on March 14.
The group of monks at the Jokhang Temple, the most sacred temple in Tibet and a top tourist stop in central Lhasa, disrupted a briefing by the head of the temple's administrative office.
"About 30 young monks burst into the official briefing, shouting: 'Don't believe them. They are tricking you. They are telling lies'," USA Today reporter Callum MacLeod said by telephone from Lhasa.
Some wept as they then told foreign reporters stories about a lack of freedom, he said.
Another reporter on the trip said some of the monks asserted that they had been unable to leave the Jokhang Temple since March 10.
The Tibetan unrest and China's response are at the centre of an international storm ahead of the Olympics in August.
U.S. President George W. Bush encouraged Chinese President Hu Jintao on Wednesday to talk with the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual leader.
China blocks U.N. debate
Protests have spread to parts of Chinese provinces that border Tibet and have large ethnic Tibetan populations.
China has poured troops into the region, and Human Rights Watch said the United Nations human rights council should address the crisis in Tibet.
Human Rights Watch said Australia, the European Union, Switzerland and the United States raised human rights abuses in Tibet during a session of the U.N. Human Rights Council, but China blocked debate, backed by Algeria, Cuba, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe.
"The council has not only the right, but the obligation to address the Tibet crisis," a statement quoted Juliette de Rivero, Geneva advocacy director at Human Rights Watch, as saying.
"It's scandalous that the council ends up silencing those who are trying to make sure it does its job."
Taiwan's outgoing President Chen Shui-bian called for people to stand up "in the name of universal human rights, positively show they care, and light a candle for the people of Tibet".
He added: "I also call on the Beijing authorities to abandon the use of force and resolve the problem through peaceful dialogue."
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