beijing seals off tibet as deadline looms for protesters

This article was first published on guardian.co.uk on Monday March 17 2008. It was last updated at 13:17 on March 17 2008.

 

Chinese riot police march through the city of Kangding, Sichuan Province. Photograph: David Gray/Reuters

China is sealing off Tibet and other areas of unrest from outside scrutiny by expelling all foreign media as its midnight ultimatum to protesters to hand themselves in approaches.

Thousands of troops and paramilitary police are flooding into Lhasa and in provinces with large Tibetan populations, amid reports that arrests have already begun in the Tibetan capital.

Journalists have been removed from Tibet and turned away from other areas where anti-government protests have broken out.

The region's governor, Qiangba Puncog, said that protesters who turned themselves in would be "treated with leniency within the framework of the law ... Otherwise, we will deal with them harshly." He offered no more details.

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