Media access and medical care vital in Tibet: activist

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Western governments should follow calls for Chinese restraint in restive Tibet by pressing Beijing to grant prompt media access and ensure medical care for the injured, a leading Tibet activist said on Friday.

The International Campaign for Tibet said China's suppression of earlier peaceful demonstrations by Buddhist monks and the shuttering of monasteries had provoked ordinary Tibetans to escalate violence in the streets of Lhasa.

ICT President John Ackerly said reports by U.S.-based broadcaster Radio Free Asia of at least two people shot to death when Chinese police fired on pro-independence protesters and other accounts of deaths and injuries in Lhasa required swift media and medical responses.

"Our major push is to ask governments to ask China to open up Tibet to the media, especially in the aftermath of this," he said.

"We believe the media should be able to talk to ordinary Tibetans," said Ackerly, adding that offering access was a key test of China's openness ahead of the Beijing Olympic Games in August. Foreign media access to Tibet is tightly controlled.

Reported casualties range from two to as many as 13 dead, but have not been confirmed, he said.

"If these are true at all, what that means is that there are many, many more wounded and there could be many Chinese wounded as well," said Ackerly, who noted long-standing ethnic tensions and reports of the burning of Chinese shops in Lhasa.

"We want to make sure that people are getting adequate medical care," he said. "The problem is that a lot of injured Tibetans may end up in prison, where the medical care is really poor."

Earlier on Friday, the United States told China to act with restraint when dealing with protesters in Tibet and again asked Beijing to talk to Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama.

(Reporting by Paul Eckert; Editing by Xavier Briand)