(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-04-02 07:19

A teenager who was attacked by a mob during the March 14 Lhasa riots criticized on Monday a German media report that carried a picture labeling him as an "insurrectionist" being led away by police, when he was actually being rescued.

Luo Jie, 14, said he was riding his bike near the Ramoqe Temple on the afternoon of March 14, when he saw a group of rioters vandalizing shops.

"I was frightened and decided to turn back," he said.

"But then a stone hit me in the head and about five young men - I didn't know where they came from - pulled me off my bike and started beating me with stones, sticks and fists.

"I tried to stand up and run away, but I was knocked to the ground again and again," he told the Xinhua News Agency.

"Suddenly, I felt someone grabbing my arms, helping me to stand up and get away. I struggled to open my eyes and saw about four police officers.

"Stones were being thrown at them, but they didn't give up and they got me to an ambulance," Luo said.

The media report that carried Luo's image appeared on the website of the Berlin Morning Post on March 18.

Luo moved to Lhasa, capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region, from Zigong in neighboring Sichuan province with his parents four years ago.

Luo Xuping, the boy's father, said: "He is recovering after treatment, and his mother and I have calmed down.

"We were told someone took a photo as the police were rescuing my son. It makes me angry that a website referred to him as an insurrectionist," he said.

"My son was saved by the police, but they were presented in a negative way," he said.

"And that is unfair."

Xinhua

(China Daily 04/02/2008 page5)