Five questioned in riot over sacred mountain-Xinhua

BEIJING, June 25 (Reuters) Police are investigating five villagers in southwest China after a protest aimed at stopping mining at a mountain they consider sacred turned into a riot, the official Xinhua news agency said today.

In the first Chinese media confirmation of the riot which Reuters reported on June 11, Xinhua said police ''captured some of the villagers'' from Daofu county in Sichuan province on May 27.

''Life has returned to normal in Daofu county,'' Xinhua quoted the local government as saying.

Xinhua made no mention of the fact that the county was home to an ethnic Tibetan population.

Local residents told Reuters the riot erupted in Bamei town in Daofu county amid protests against a lead and zinc mine at Yala Mountain -- one of nine mountains which Tibetans hold sacred -- in the Tagong grasslands.

China keeps a tight grip on dissent across this vast nation and often cracks down on public protests, especially in ethnic-minority regions. Maintaining social stability is one of the Communist Party's key concerns.

Xinhua quoted Daofu county chief Li Chunlan as saying the local government had sent working teams to villages to persuade residents to stay within the law.

About 300 villagers smashed mining equipment, destroyed cars, hurled stones at police and attacked members of the working teams in an attempt to halt exploitation of a lead and zinc mine, Xinhua said.

One government worker was seriously injured in the attack, Xinhua said without elaborating.

ELDERS DISAPPEARED The news agency said no one was killed in the riot.

But a source with knowledge of the incident said a pregnant woman suffered a miscarriage.

Several Bamei village elders had disappeared after they tried to petition the government, residents said.

Reuters obtained a copy of the petition in which villagers complained that the exploitation caused environmental degradation, killed endangered animals and drove away tourists.

''The sound of machinery and explosives broke the tranquillity here,'' the petition read.

''It also sabotaged the dream of herders to become financially well off,'' the petition read, invoking the government slogan to enrich the have-nots of society.

The lush Tagong grassland lies in a remote, sparsely populated part of western Sichuan that Tibetans have historically considered the Kham region, part of a cultural Tibet that extends beyond the borders of the Tibetan Autonomous Region.

Chinese troops marched into predominantly Buddhist Tibet in 1950 and nine years later the Dalai Lama, spiritual leader of the Himalayan region, fled into exile after a failed uprising.

Beijing keeps a tight rein on Tibet's outlying regions, home to many minorities, which are also rich in minerals and energy.

China is hungry for energy, metals and other natural resources to feed a booming economy that is fourth biggest in the world.

In 2003, Australian mining company Sino Gold abandoned exploration rights in a Tibetan region of Sichuan following a letter-writing campaign by Australia-based pro-Tibet activists.

REUTERS SKB PM1611