By RIA Novosti
Beijing : Tibet will reopen for tourists from May 1 a little under two months after violent mass protests rocked the region, the local Bureau of Tourism said on Thursday.
China’s Xinhua news agency quoted the bureau’s deputy director as saying that, “all travel agencies will be allowed to arrange tours, and independent travelers will also be welcome.”
The protests in Tibet began on March 10, when Buddhist monks held a demonstration marking the 49th anniversary of a failed uprising against Chinese rule in the mountainous province.
Exiled Tibetans say Chinese forces cracked down brutally on the demonstrations, killing around 140 people. Beijing says only 13 people were killed, 12 of them Han Chinese murdered by Tibetan separatists.
China denied entry to Tibet for tourists and foreign journalists during the unrest.
The country has accused the Nobel Peace Prize winner, the Dalai Lama, of being behind the violence. He has denied the allegations.
The row over Tibet has threatened to wreck the upcoming Olympic Games in Beijing. Last month, the European Parliament’s president spoke of the possibility of a boycott of the Games over China’s heavy-handed response to recent protests in China.
The Olympic flame, currently on a worldwide tour before coming back to Beijing for the opening ceremony in August, is due in Tibet on June 19-21.