TAIPEI—Chairman of the Tibet Autonomous Region Qiangba Puncog said in Beijing on March 17 that the Chinese Army did not take part in settling the riot in Lhasa. The army on the street of Lhasa was "keeping the street clean." Qiangba Puncog made the statement during a press conference held in China's State Department.
Qiangba Puncog at the same time stressed that public securities and armed officers didn't not employ any destructive weapon in settling the riot, "Absolutely no gun shot was fired." He also said the authority mobilized some pubic securities and armed officers to transport equipments such as armored car, "There is nothing such as tanks (that were sent to Lhasa)."
For the army troops showed up on the street of Lhasa, Qiangba Puncog said those were to "help the civilians to clean up the street and maintain the hygiene."
However, Andrei Pinkov (aka Andrei Chang), Chief Editor of the Kanwa Asian Defense Monthly, said that a lot of photographs showed Chinese army mobilized the lastest 90 armored troop carriers and the 92 wheeled armor cars to Lhasa. These equipments were never deployed to the armed police.
The Tibetan Parliament-in-exile headquartered in India announced a statement on March 17 that several hundred of Tibetans have died in the riots.
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