CHINA:AT A tense Nepal-China border yesterday, tourists described seeing protesters attacking Chinese people and setting fire to vehicles and businesses in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa.
Violent street protests quickly led to widespread destruction of Chinese shops and Chinese-made vehicles in the city centre on Friday, they said. They described young Tibetan street protesters' behaviour as "wild", and "frustrated" with over 50 years of Chinese occupation.
A Tibetan man with whom they spoke, said that Tibetans wanted freedom, particularly to practise their Buddhist religion in Tibet.
From their hotel rooftop, they saw large clouds of black smoke rising into the sky as protests spread to different parts of the city. Outside, they saw protesters wielding sticks and chanting "Freedom for Tibet!"
Footage they filmed shows Tibetans chasing and attacking Chinese people, destroying shops and ATM machines and anything of Chinese origin. Other pictures showed car windows being broken, and crowds turning cars over and setting them alight.
Tibetan premises were not attacked or burned, distinguished from Chinese ones by sashes at their shop fronts, they said.
Violent protests in the capital started on Friday afternoon following arrests of Buddhist monks marking the anniversary of the 1959 Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule, earlier in the week.
From a restaurant, they saw army tanks and armoured cars rolling down city centre streets.
Large numbers of armed troops also took up positions at junctions and at the opposite end of the street to where protesters were assembled, they said.
One of the group, a Danish citizen, who asked that his name not be printed, suffered an eye injury from a stone thrown by a Tibetan protester as their Chinese-owned hotel was attacked.
Unable to get treatment at the closed army hospital for two days, he was rushed to Katmandu, following his arrival in Nepal yesterday.
The three who arrived at the border yesterday (from New Zealand, Australia and Denmark) were part of a group of 24 international tourists taking part in an overland tour of Tibet.
The first sign of something wrong, they said, was when they were told they would not be able to visit the city's famous Buddhist monasteries, because they were closed by the authorities. No other explanation was given.
City centre disturbances continued throughout Friday evening and Saturday.
However, Chinese police and army did not appear to respond to the protesters who faced each other at either end of the street where their hotel was located.
While unable to say what was happening in other parts of the city, they said they did not hear gun fire or see loss of life.
Electricity at their hotel was cut at 8pm, and a back-up generator was switched off at midnight. They seemed to be the only guests staying there. Later, they were told by staff there was a fire at the hotel and to evacuate, but this turned out to be untrue. Perhaps staff were confused with the smell of tear gas entering the hotel from outside, they thought.
On Saturday morning, their "assigned" guides told them they had to leave Tibet immediately.
From the rooftop, the city appeared quiet. Beyond the destruction below them, they could see three armoured personnel cars and a tank at the end of the street.
As the airport was closed in Lhasa, a police escort took them to waiting jeeps which brought 12 of them in four jeeps the 700km (435 miles) south to Nepal's only border road crossing with Nepal.
They were stopped by police at 15 checkpoints between Lhasa and the border and they hid memory cards from cameras used to film the disturbances in Lhasa.
Locals on the Nepali side of the Friendship Bridge high above a river that marks the border of Tibet and Nepal said there is more tension then usual now.
The Chinese fear further demonstrations will be made on its borders as the Olympic Torch comes to Tibet in May.