China said Thursday the situation in the Tibetan capital Lhasa was stable after what rights groups described as the biggest protests there against Chinese rule in nearly 20 years.
"In the past couple of days, a few monks in Lhasa have made some disturbances in an effort to cause unrest," foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang told reporters when asked about the protests.
"Thanks to the efforts of the local government and the democratic administration of the temples, the situation in Lhasa has been stabilised."
Qin refused to give details, but pro-Tibet independence groups said hundreds of Buddhist monks and others had demonstrated Monday and Tuesday on the anniversary of a 1959 uprising against Chinese rule.
The pro-Tibet groups and Amnesty International said tear gas and electric prods had been used to disperse protesters, while up to 50 monks had been detained.
The London-based Free Tibet Campaign also reported that protests had spread outside the so-called Tibet Autonomous Region to neighbouring Chinese provinces with significant ethnic Tibetan populations.
In one such protest, 400 monks demonstrated at the Lutsang monastery in Qinghai province on Tuesday calling for the return of exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, according to the Free Tibet Campaign.
The protests in Lhasa and nearby coincided with demonstrations in India and elsewhere around the world by Tibetans who are seeking to pressure China over its rule of the Himalayan region ahead of the Beijing Olympics in August.
"The reports of protests outside Lhasa show that Tibetans know the eyes of the world are upon them and are determined not to let the momentum drop," Free Tibet Campaign spokesman Matt Whitticase said.
"Tibetans inside Tibet are aware that Tibetans in India are marching towards the Tibet border and have been emboldened by the support they are receiving from across the world."
The International Campaign for Tibet said the recent protests in Lhasa were the biggest there by monks since a wave of pro-independence protests in 1989.
Amnesty International condemned what it said was the harsh crackdown by China's security forces on this week's protests.
"Demonstrators have a right to protest peacefully," Amnesty Asia Pacific deputy programme director Tim Parritt said in a statement.
"China violates international human rights standards in denying their freedom of assembly and freedom of expression."
Canada's Foreign Minister Maxime Bernier expressed "serious concerns" about China's actions.
"We urge China to respect the right of Tibetans to peaceful protests and to take steps to improve the human rights situation in Tibet," he told the Canadian parliament.
China sent troops into Tibet in 1950 to "liberate" the region, and officially began its rule there a year later.
The Dalai Lama fled Tibet after the 1959 uprising and has since been based in Dharamshala, India.
Chinese troops killed tens of thousands of Tibetans as they quashed the uprising, according to the Tibetan government-in-exile's website.
Foreign ministry spokesman Qin also condemned this week's protests in India, in which 100 Tibetans have been trying to walk to Tibet in a Mahatma Gandhi-style peaceful march.
Indian police arrested the protesters on Thursday but they vowed to continue with their walk, which they said could take months.
"We're resolutely opposed to the Dalai Lama's group engaging in separatist activities," Qin said when asked about the march in India.
Qin said China had received assurances from Indian officials that they would not support any "splittist" activities from the government-in-exile.
The Dalai Lama has not given his blessing to the march, but on Monday spoke out about what he said were China's "gross" human rights abuses in his homeland.
Source: Agency France Presse
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