Fears and tears in holy plateau city
Updated: 2008-03-17 06:36
Nightmares
As tensions began to ease on Saturday, residents in the traditionally tranquil plateau city recalled the nightmares they went through.
Rawang, a Tibetan clothes vendor in downtown Lhasa, sighed at the dreary scene, once the site of bustling commerce. "It was once a shopping haven, but now it's all deserted, like a hell." His shop was burnt to the ground. "Losses were grave. These people were crazy," he said.
Tubdain, a local resident, said he saw a girl in red-clothing who appeared to be an ethnic Han chased and clubbed by six people on the Dosenge Road in the downtown area. "The mobs stoned her head and batted her knees with wooden clubs," said the 50-something Tubdain.
"Blood trickled down her face. She stumbled to the ground, crying and begging the rioters to let her go," he said. "They seemed like a bunch of insane people, growling, stabbing, smashing and burning. It was so hard to believe what I saw."
Jin Hong, a clerk with the Bank of China outlet on Lhasa's Beijing East Road, suffered a broken pelvis after jumping from the second-floor of the building while trying to protect a cash box.
"About 60 rioters, all young men and women, attacked the bank with rocks and axes and set fire to the building on Friday afternoon.
"I hid in the toilet with three colleagues, but the mobs thronged against the toilet door. I had to jump out of the window," she said.
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