Amnesty calls on Beijing to release Tibet detainees

Updated June 19, 2008 08:39:30

Amnesty International says Tibetans should not be detained for peaceful protest or support of the Dalai Lama. [Reuters]

Human rights group, Amnesty International, has called on the Chinese government to release hundreds of people detained after the March riots in Tibet.

A new report from Amnesty says more than 1,000 people are still detained without charge after the deadly riots.

The anti-China disturbances which broke out in Lhasa and nearby Tibetan areas posed the sharpest political challenge to Chinese rule in the mountain kingdom for decades, sparking global anti-China protests ahead of Beijing Olympics in August.

Amnesty International's Roseanne Rife says the human rights group has appealed to Beijing to release those detained immediately.

"Hundreds, over a thousand, people are unaccounted for in the Tibetan autonomous region and the neighbouring Tibetan-populated areas," Ms Rife said.

"The Chinese government, through official media reports, has told us about numbers who've surrendered, who've been detained, and then who've been charged and sentenced - and there's a huge discrepancy.

"Those hundreds of people are unaccounted for," she said.