Chinese authorities to investigate killing of Tibetan refugees

Kathmandu, October 12:  China said Thursday that soldiers posted near its border with Nepal clashed with some 70 people attempting to flee the country, killing one person on the spot and injuring two others, including one who died later of altitude sickness.

The official Xinhua News Agency said the clash occurred on Sept. 30 — the same day that foreign climbers and human rights groups allege that Chinese border guards opened fire on dozens of unarmed Tibetan refugees as they tried to flee Chinese-ruled Tibet, killing at least one. The different accounts appeared to be about the same incident.

The Xinhua report said that the people trying to cross the border attacked the soldiers, who were then "forced to defend themselves." It did not say if the people trying to cross the border were Tibetan, whether they were armed, or give other details.

Accounts of the incident by rights groups drew a protest Thursday from the U.S. government. U.S. Ambassador to China, Clark Randt, went to the Chinese Foreign Ministry Thursday to "protest China's treatment of the refugees" in the incident, embassy spokeswoman Susan Stevenson said.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao had earlier Thursday denied knowledge of the shootings, but said that if the news reports about it were true, Chinese authorities would investigate.

A Nepal-based Tibetan exile group, the Tibet Refugee Center, said last week that two Tibetans were killed and several wounded, citing accounts from some of the 42 who made the crossing. Another group, the Washington-based International Campaign for Tibet, said that one person was killed and that Chinese soldiers later took 10 to 12 Tibetan children from the group into custody. Bhutan News Service