(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-03-29 22:05

LHASA  -- After two weeks lying in a hospital bed, 19-year-old police officer Liu Dingwei still feels sharp pain whenever he turns.

"Doctors told me that the wound was about the size of my fist," Liu said.

The teenager from southwestern Chongqing Municipality had a piece of flesh gouged out of his left buttock when he and other riot policemen were trying to rescue people attacked by rioters near the Ramogia Monastery in Lhasa, capital of Tibet.

It was about 1:30 pm on March 14, when Liu was on duty, he saw a group of rioters.

"Hundreds of people, mostly young Tibetans and a few monks, wielding clubs, rocks or knives attacked us and other Hans," he said.

The police fetched their shields, batons and helmets to rescue the civilians: one policeman helped the injured, while another fended off the attacks with the shield.

"But the rioters seemed organized, communicating with each other in Tibetan. The perpetrators in the front hit our feet while those in the rear flung rocks at our heads. There were also people throwing rocks or flowerpots from the roofs," said Liu.

During the riot, they never got permission to "fight back". What they could rely on were just the shields and the helmets, which were soon smashed.

Liu was hit by a rock on the head and knocked unconscious. His squad leader pulled him to safety, but Liu lost a piece of flesh and had seven stitches on the head.

Compared with the soft-spoken Liu, 21-year-old Chen Chong from the Guang'an city of Sichuan appeared angry.

"Although furious at the atrocity (of the rioters), we were told to keep restraint and not to fight back," said the man whose shoulders and legs were hacked.

"They beat my head with sticks and trampled me as if trying to kill me," he said.

Fortunately Chen was saved by two Tibetan people and hidden under the bar counter of a hotel.

Facing a group of yelling rioters asking for Chen, the receptionist insisted no police officer entered the hotel. At last the rioters left with the door and windows of the hotel smashed.

A foreigner in the hotel later tended his wound and gave him a sweater.

Chen contacted his fellows at about 11 pm when the riot died down and went to hospital.

The riot that rocked Lhasa left 241 police officers injured and one dead. About 40 police who were stabbed, beaten, burned or suffered broken bones are still in hospital.

"It was a lie to accuse us of attacking the rioters with lethal weapons," said Liu, noting that had they done so, fewer police would have been injured.

"I will forgive those who hurt me," he said. "It might not be their own intention. They could have been coerced by someone else."