By NNN-PTI
Beijing : Under intense global scrutiny over Lhasa riots, China today said it showed “maximum restraint” but vowed to punish those who committed “serious crimes” as the violence-battered Tibetan capital remained calm but tense three days after the killing of 13 people in the unrest.
“We showed maximum restraint. We did not use lethal weapons. No guns were used. We used only tear gas and water canons,” Tibet Autonomous Regional Government Chairman Qiangba Puncog told a hurriedly called press conference, as he dismissed charge of “repression” of peaceful protests by Tibetans.
Qiangba said the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) was also not involved to quell the protests until yesterday, since when they had been cleaning up the roads and helping in maintaining public order.
“The central government had made it clear to the security personnel to perform their duties in a civilised manner and in accordance with the law,” he said, fending off the allegation of repression from some western countries and human rights groups.
He said 13 innocent civilians were either hacked or burnt to death, which pushes up the toll from 10 in Friday’s bloodletting when the pro-Tibet independence protests led by Buddhist monks took a violent turn in the fiercest protest in two decades.
Qiangba dismissed as “baseless” reports that there were about “35 to 70 to 80 deaths” in the unrest.
He said it was “baffling” that some western countries and the ‘Dalai clique’, groups associated with the Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama, were saying that peaceful protests were being suppressed. “Will any democratic country tolerate such violent behaviour?”