BEIJING — A Chinese shopkeeper in Tibet's capital came out of hiding Monday for the first time since mobs ransacked his herb store last week, during the biggest uprising against the region's Chinese rulers in nearly two decades.
Ma Zhonglong, 20, said he had had nothing but a few packets of instant noodles to eat since he ran for cover Friday when he saw hundreds of Tibetans smash and burn storefronts near the Jokhang Temple, the religious and geographical heart of Lhasa.
"I went outside and saw people fighting on the street," Ma said in a telephone interview. "I hurried back and closed the door. Through the glass window I could see the mob rushing toward me. They carried knives, stones, sticks. I ran farther back into this courtyard to hide. Outside I could hear them smashing everything."
Monday morning, as Ma emerged and found his store in ruins and expensive herbs looted, the Chinese government had taken control of Lhasa and ordered all rioters to turn themselves in by midnight or face serious consequences.
A calm descended on the regional capital today after a week of protests that had turned violent and spread to three nearby provinces. Even the Chinese capital saw demonstrations, with dozens of students at the Central University for Nationalities gathered for a candlelight vigil amid heavy security.
Chinese authorities, weary of bad publicity in the run-up to the Beijing Olympics in August and eager to avoid any reminder of the violent 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protests by students at Tiananmen Square, offered a portrait of official restraint during the effort to restore order in Lhasa. They blasted the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, accusing him of fueling unrest.
"There is ample fact and plenty of evidence proving this incident was organized, premeditated, masterminded and incited by the Dalai clique," Premier Wen Jiabao said today at a news conference. "This has all the more revealed the consistent claims by the Dalai clique that they pursue not independence but peaceful dialogue are nothing but lies."
The Dalai Lama, a Nobel laureate who fled Tibet in 1959 after a failed uprising and runs an exile government in India, has denied any role in inciting the violence. He accused the Chinese government of cultural genocide in Tibet.
