By Zhan Yan and Cering Degyi (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-03-27 07:30

"The rioters turned my home into ruins, leaving me and my son homeless," Yangjain said, tearfully.

The 48-year-old Tibetan woman stood in the burned-out husk of her three-room apartment and surveyed the damage. The apartment was in Chomsigkang, one of the communities that sustained the most damage during the two-day riots that broke out in Lhasa on March 14.

Rioters looted and vandalized shops run by Han and Hui civilians, and assaulted Han and Hui civilians and other minorities - but not foreigners - with stones, sticks, fists and feet.

Tibetans also suffered. The streets in Lhasa are becoming more peaceful, but blackened buildings remind people of the sights, smells and sounds of the riots.

Yangjain got up at 6 am on March 14 as usual to make breakfast and send her son to school. She then hurried to her small shop, not far from her home. "Children heading for school would come to my shop to buy snacks," she said.

The woman was native to Xigaze prefecture and has lived in Lhasa for about 20 years. She supported her family by running the shop since her husband passed away years ago.

She never expected to see her apartment and everything in it, which took two decades to accumulate, burned to char in less than an hour.

"When I was in the shop and heard that someone was making trouble and setting fires, I closed my shop quickly and hurried home," she said.

"I saw thick black smoke above our building, but it was only when I got to the building that I realized my home on the second floor was on fire. I cried for help and tried to rescue some of my belongings, but the fire was too big for me."

The first floor of the building was rented to shops. The rioters set fire to shops run by Han and Hui, and the flames rose to engulf the second and third floors.

Blackened pots, bowls and remnants of a burned quilt lay strewn about Yangjain's former home. She picked up a square frame and said: "This is my television."

In her home's Buddha worship room - almost every Tibetan home has such a room - the burned Buddha statues were lying on the floor.

"I've saved money through hard work and borrowed tens of thousands of yuan to buy the apartment. The debts are not paid off, but the apartment is gone," Yangjain said.

Chomsigkang market, visible through the windows of Yangjain's ruined apartment, was one of the busiest in Lhasa, bustling with hawkers and hagglers. Now, only five migrant peddlers can be seen selling vegetables and cigarettes from pedicabs.

Although outwardly, life has returned to normal, there are fewer people on the street than usual. Basang in the Lhalu community recalled her encounter with the violence when she was passing Xuexincun Road. She saw some young men driving away shop owners with stones, knives and sticks and then carrying off boxes of rice and milk.

When she scolded them, saying, "You are so shameless. You rob others," a group of seven or eight told her to "shut up" or they would set her home on fire.

Slin'nam Wanggyai, who lives on Nagaqen Road, Northern community, recalled seeing "black smoke billowing" and heard "horrifying howling".

"They attacked and drove away the shop owners ... then they smashed the shops and moved goods outside to burn, howling like ghosts."

Slin'nam Wanggyai expressed pity for the victims. "I didn't understand why they were doing this. Though we dared not go near to watch, we could see they were attacking the Han, and some victims were beaten bloody.

"The mobs were lawless."

Only a few shops have resumed normal operations in the community, which was seriously affected by the riots, including those run by Tibetans or shops near the station of the security staff.

The rioters killed 18 people and injured about 380 civilians, according to the Tibet autonomous region government.

Some rioters surrendered to police. Zhoima, from the Nyingchi prefecture, admitted she "obtained hundreds of yuan" when about 50 people smashed and looted shops on Xuexincun Road last Friday.

China Features