China compensates protest victims, entertains diplomats and journalists

BEIJING (Reuters) - China offered to pay compensation tothe families of the civilians it says died in violence in theTibetan capital this month as Beijing kept up an intensepropaganda campaign in the wake of the unrest.

Anyone injured in the chaos that engulfed in Lhasa afterdays of Buddhist monk-led demonstrations was entitled to freemedical care, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported late onFriday.

Unrest in the Chinese-controlled Himalayan region and otherTibetan-populated parts of western China, and China's response,have become a focus of international concern just months aheadof the summer Olympics.

By the government's count, 18 civilians died during theMarch 14 anti-Chinese violence in Lhasa, during whichdemonstrators hurled rocks at police and burned and lootedstores and homes.

Their families would each receive 200,000 yuan ($28,530),Xinhua said, quoting a notice from Tibet's regional government.

"Measures are to be taken to help people repair their homesand shops damaged in the unrest or to build new ones," Xinhuaquoted the notice as saying. One police officer also died,state media say, but Xinhua did not mention compensationarrangements.

The Tibet government-in-exile, established when the DalaiLama fled to India after an abortive uprising in 1959, hasestimated that there have been 140 deaths in the violence.

China is taking a handful of foreign diplomats to Tibet, following widespread criticism of Beijing's crackdown on Tibetan protests.

The UK, France and the US are among the countries invited on a two-day trip to the Tibetan capital Lhasa - the first since anti-China riots broke out there.

The US welcomed the move, but said diplomats and observers should be allowed to see areas surrounding Lhasa.

A group of 17 diplomats from countries including Japan and Australia have left for Tibet from Beijing and are expected to return to the Chinese capital on Saturday.

US state department spokesman Sean McCormack said the trip was a "step in the right direction".

"But it's not a substitute for the ability of our diplomats, as well as others, to travel not only to Lhasa, but into the surrounding area specifically," he said.

It follows a short visit by a group of more than 20 journalists from Chinese and international media.

A 30-strong group of monks in Lhasa staged a noisy protest as the reporters were shown around one of Tibet's holiest sites, the Jokhang Temple, on Thursday.

The monks shouted "Tibet is not free, Tibet is not free" and accused Beijing officials of lying about the protests.

Associated Press reporter Charles Hutzler said the outburst was the only spontaneous moment in an otherwise tightly controlled trip.

A Tibetan exile group expressed fears for the "welfare and whereabouts" of the monks involved in the outburst, but Chinese officials insisted no action would be taken.

"We will never do anything to them," the Chinese-installed vice governor of Tibet, Baima Chilin, told reporters on the trip.

"We will never detain anyone you met on the streets of Lhasa. I don't think any government would do such a thing."