Thirty jailed for Tibet riots

Thirty people have received jail sentences ranging from three years to life for their participation in the anti-China riots that flared up in Tibet in mid-March, state media reported (click here for Reuters report). Lhasa Intermediate People’s Court announced the verdicts in a public session on Tuesday. The life sentences were handed down to a monk called Basang, a 30 year-old businessman called Cering, and Soi’nam Cering, a driver with a Lhasa real estate company who had previously been identified as Soi’nam Norbu. Beijing claims the violence in Lhasa took the lives of 18 innocent civilians and one police officer, left seven schools, five hospitals and 120 homes torched, and saw 908 shops looted. The total cost of the damage caused has been put at US$35 million. The government blames the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s spiritual leader, and his allies for instigating the unrest, but Beijing’s actions to quell riots have prompted protests around the globe.