Chinese authorities have closed the troubled Tibetan region to foreign tourists, travel agents said Monday, ahead of the third anniversary of violent anti-government riots there.

"The tourism bureau will not give permission to foreigners to come to Tibet in March," an employee at the Xizang Tourist General Company in the region's capital Lhasa told AFP by phone.

"They can't come to Tibet in March and as far as April is concerned we are still awaiting notification (of any rule changes)."

Other agencies also told AFP that travellers from overseas would not be allowed into Tibet in March, while one firm said that permission for foreign tourists to come to the region would take at least 10 days to be approved.

China routinely limits foreign travel to Tibet, requiring overseas tourists to obtain special permits — in addition to Chinese visas — and also travel in tour groups.

In the wake of anti-government riots in Lhasa in March 2008, which left parts of the city burned and looted, foreign tourists were banned from travelling to the Himalayan region for more than a year.

China has increased security in Tibet since the 2008 demonstrations descended into violence and spread to neighbouring areas with significant Tibetan populations.

A report released by Human Rights Watch last year said Chinese security forces brutally beat and even shot dead some protesters during the unrest, and tortured many in the subsequent crackdown.

The New York-based organisation said it had based its findings on interviews with more than 200 Tibetan refugees and other witnesses between March 2008 and April 2010, as well as official information.

Chinese authorities deny that such violence has been used on the region's population.

China has ruled Tibet since 1951, a year after sending in troops to "liberate" the region.

Tibet's Communist Party chief Zhang Qingli said Sunday the region was still facing "very grave challenges" in the fight against separatism, the official Xinhua news agency said.

earlier related report

China state paper warns against 'Jasmine rallies'
Beijing (AFP) March 5, 2011 –

China's state media on Saturday warned citizens to ignore calls for weekend anti-government rallies in major cities, saying that similar protests across the Middle East had created "chaos".

The message — carried by the Beijing Daily, a mouthpiece of the city government — came as Premier Wen Jiabao noted the public's "great resentment" over a number of issues in his speech to open the annual parliamentary session.

Authorities in China have shown increasing nervousness about the Internet's power to mobilise ordinary citizens in the wake of unrest in the Arab world, and the subsequent online call for anti-government "Jasmine" rallies at home.

"This turmoil has brought a massive calamity to the people of these countries," the Beijing Daily said in a commentary.

"It is worth noting that at home and abroad some people with ulterior motives are trying to draw this chaos into China. They have used the Internet to incite illegal gatherings," it said.

Citizens have been urged to gather for subtle "strolling" demonstrations — but take no overt protest action — each Sunday afternoon at designated locations in cities across China to highlight public anger with the government.

The anonymous campaigners behind the so-called "Jasmine rallies" have said their movement has support in dozens of cities, though security have turned out in force at the rally sites in Beijing and Shanghai to prevent such gatherings.

On February 27, several foreign journalists were roughed up in a popular shopping area of Beijing, and police have since threatened reporters that they could lose their permission to work in China unless they follow new rules.

As the United States, the European Union and rights groups have criticised the treatment of foreign journalists and called for an explanation, state media on Thursday accused those same reporters of "fabricating news".

The Beijing Daily urged citizens to "conscientiously protect harmony and stability" rather than allow a small group of people both at home and abroad to "exploit the problems existing in our development to provoke trouble".

"Everyone knows that stability is a blessing and chaos is a calamity," the newspaper said.

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