Chinese security forces seal off Tibet capital

By Lindsay Beck and John Ruwitch

BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese security forces sealed off parts of Lhasa on Saturday and Tibet's government-in-exile said it was investigating reports of fresh protests, weeks after the city was shaken by an anti-government riot.

The reports coincided with a visit by a group of diplomats, who were led on a closely guarded tour of the city that has been at the heart of unrest throughout China's ethnic Tibetan regions just months before the opening of the Beijing Olympics.

"We don't know how many people, but it seems it's quite a lot of people," Tenzin Taklha, a spokesman for the Dalai Lama said of the events in Lhasa. "I think it's timed with the visit of the diplomats."

The London-based International Campaign for Tibet said it had heard from three sources that security forces had surrounded Lhasa's main temples, Jokhang and Ramoche.

"The whole area has been shut down," said the group's spokeswoman, Kate Saunders.

"I don't know what form the protest took. I think people in Lhasa may have been aware of the diplomats' visit, just as they were aware of the journalists' visit," she said.

Earlier this week, the government took select foreign media to Lhasa to highlight the wreckage and give the impression that the city was returning to normal, but the plan backfired when about 30 monks at Jokhang stormed an official news briefing.

The monks complained about a lack of religious freedom and voiced support for the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism who lives in exile and who China accuses of masterminding the unrest.