Report: China intensifies crackdown on Tibet

In a report released Tuesday, the International Campaign for Tibet said that since anti-China protests erupted in March, armed soldiers have surrounded the Himalayan region's Buddhist monasteries. Hundreds of Tibetans, including students, monks, nuns and farmers, it said, have been detained or "disappeared," and people in the Tibetan capital Lhasa sleep in their clothes, "fearful of a knock on the door in the middle of the night."

"China has dramatically tightened security in Tibet and announced new 'anti-terror' plans in order to prevent any possible embarrassment to the ruling Communist Party before a worldwide audience during the Olympics," said the Washington-based group's report.

Leaders in Beijing see the Olympics, which begin Friday, as a chance to showcase their country's emergence as a new world power. Critics are increasingly using the attention the games are attracting to condemn what they say is China's failure to follow through on pledges to improve human rights that were included with China's bid to host the games.

Protests in Tibet, initially led by Buddhist monks, started peacefully on March 10, the anniversary of a failed Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule. They became violent four days later as Tibetans attacked shops run by Han Chinese, China's majority ethnic group, in Lhasa.

China blamed the unrest on lawless thugs and said the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, and his followers orchestrated the violence. China says 22 people died, while overseas Tibet supporters say many times that number have been killed.

A message seeking comment Tuesday from the Chinese Embassy in Washington was not immediately returned.

The International Campaign for Tibet wants world leaders to get China to account for "the more than 1,000 Tibetans whose status following the spring demonstrations in Tibet is unknown."

The protests marked the most widespread and sustained action against Beijing's rule in decades. They drew attention to accusations that China's policies in Tibet are eroding traditional Buddhist culture and mainly benefit Chinese who moved there since its 1951 occupation by Communist troops.