Japanese diplomat describes trip to Lhasa

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(29 Mar 2008) SHOTLIST • 1. Wide interior of arrival hall at Beijing Airport • 2. Wide electronic board showing flights arrival time • 3. Close electronic board showing flight details from Lhasa to Beijing • 4. Mitsuhiro Wada, Minister at the Japanese Ministry in Beijing walking out with luggage • 5. Wide Mitsuhiro Wada, Minister at the Japanese Ministry in Beijing walking through airport • 6. Wada surrounded by media at airport • 7. SOUNDBITE ( English) Mitsuhiro Wada, Minister at the Japanese Ministry in Beijing: • We've been to Monastry, city government, hospitals and burnt school and so forth. • (Question: Did you see any protest during your visit?) • No. • 8. Wide Electronic board showing flight details • 9. Passengers in arrivals hall • STORYLINE • A Japanese diplomat, returning from a trip to Lhasa organised by Beijing in an effort to blunt criticism of its crackdown on unrest in the region, said No, when asked at the Beijing airport whether he saw any protests. • Mitsuhiro Wada, was part of a 15-member group of diplomats from the United States, Japan and European governments who returned to Beijing after a tightly controlled two-day visit to Lhasa. • His comments come as a new protest was reported on Saturday in the Tibetan capital. • The protest began at Lhasa's Ramoche monastery and grew to involve a lot of people, according to Kate Saunders of the Washington-based International Campaign for Tibet. • Citing sources in the city, she said there were some reports of fighting but she had no other information. • Ramoche was where earlier protests started on March 14 that led to the crackdown. • People also protested at the Jokhang Temple, a major Buddhist site in Lhasa, the government-in-exile of the Tibetan Buddhist leader, the Dalai Lama, said on its Web site. It gave no other details. • An American Embassy spokeswoman said she had no information on a protest. • Beijing is trying to enforce calm in Tibet and reinforce its claim that the most violent anti-Chinese protests since 1989 were incited by forces linked to the Dalai Lama. • Diplomats toured damaged areas of Lhasa and met people selected by Chinese authorities, who accompanied them at all times, the American Embassy said in a brief written statement. • The delegation was not permitted to move about independently in Lhasa, and was unable to hold unsupervised conversations with local residents, the statement said. • It gave no other details but repeated Washington's appeal to China to show restraint. • The British Embassy and the European Union mission in Beijing had no immediate comment. • After the March 14 violence in Lhasa, protests spread across ethnic Tibetan areas of neighbouring provinces in the most widespread challenge to communist rule since 1989. • The unrest was a public relations disaster for communist leaders, who want to use the Olympics to showcase China as a prosperous, stable society. • A group of foreign reporters was taken on a similar trip to Lhasa earlier in the week. That effort backfired when about 30 monks burst into a briefing room shouting that there was no religious freedom in Tibet. • Beijing says 22 people were killed in Lhasa, while Tibetan exiles put the overall death toll at 140. • The protests, led by monks, began peacefully on March 10, on the anniversary of a failed 1959 uprising against Chinese rule. Tibet had been effectively independent for decades before Chinese communist troops entered in 1950. • • Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork • Twitter: / ap_archive • Facebook: / aparchives • Instagram: / apnews • • • You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...

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