China releases gory details of Tibet riot violence

By Benjamin Kang Lim

BEIJING (Reuters) - China released gory details on Monday of knife-wielding Tibetan protesters carving off a chunk of flesh from a Chinese paramilitary policeman and cutting off the ears of passers-by.

But the accusations by Qiangba Puncog, chairman of the Tibet Autonomous Region government, and a Chinese-language Web site could not be independently confirmed because foreign reporters are barred from the region.

"The mob used methods that were extremely ruthless. It makes one's hackles rise," Qiangba Puncog, an ethnic Tibetan and the top government official in the region, told a news conference.

A member of the People's Armed Police was beaten unconscious by a mob, one of whom then used a knife to carve out a chunk of flesh the size of a fist from his buttocks, said Qiangba Puncog, who holds a rank equivalent to a provincial governor.

A passer-by was burnt alive after petrol was poured over him, he said.

Monk-led pro-independence protests erupted in Tibet's regional capital Lhasa last Monday -- the 49th anniversary of an uprising that drove the Himalayan region's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, into exile in India.

The Chinese edition of the official Web site www.chinatibetnews.com published a picture of a paramilitary policeman crawling on his knees outside a temple while "lawless elements madly attacked him".

"The mob was extremely vicious ... even cut off the ears" of passers-by, the Web site said.