BEIJING, March 7 (AFP) - Almost 50 years after Chinese troops marched into Tibet, opponents of Beijing's rule and independent observers say torture, imprisonment and other abuses are still used to crush support for exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama.

And as the troubled region this week marks the double anniversary of the 1959 Tibetan uprising and the 1989 anti-China demonstrations in Lhasa, critics of Beijing's heavy-handed policies warn that resentment is building.

"Over the last four decades, the Tibetan people have seen nothing but the destruction of their religion and culture by the Chinese," Tseten Samdup, press and information officer for the Office of the Dalai Lama in London, told AFP.

"The continued crackdown by the Chinese authorities will only make the Tibetans more nationalist," he said, adding that Beijing appeared increasingly desperate to tighten its grip on Tibet.

Chinese troops first marched into Lhasa in late 1950, "liberating" the Tibetans from what the Chinese labelled a repressive feudal regime. A 17-point agreement to bring Tibet under communist rule was signed by the Dalai Lama in 1951.

Sporadic rebellions throughout the 1950s culminated in the Lhasa Uprising of March 10, 1959. A small rally outside the summer palace, which had gathered upon hearing rumours of a plot to abduct the Dalai Lama, exploded into a mass protest for a free Tibet.

As tensions grew and police opened fire into the crowds, the Dalai Lama slipped out of Lhasa unnoticed. He crossed the border into India two weeks later and set up his government-in-exile in the northern hill town of Dharamsala.

"When (the rebellion) was suppressed, the democratic reform was enforced to abolish feudal serfdom and allow former serfs and slaves to become masters of society," the official Xinhua news agency said in a recent summary of Beijing's version of the events.

The news agency has printed copious attacks on the Dalai Lama, labelling him a "terrorist" using peace as "a cloak to cheat the world" and as a splittist engaging in anti-China activities.

But most of this vitriol appears to have fallen on deaf ears in Tibet. "There is very little evidence that Beijing has had any success in winning over the hearts and minds of ordinary Tibetans," Richard Oppenheimer, news service director for the Tibet Information Network (TIN), told AFP from his London headquarters.

"The various political campaigns of the past three years aimed at eradicating support for the Dalai Lama -- particularly the Patriotic Education campaign -- have if anything proved counter-productive, stirring up resentment and sometimes open protest," he added.

The US State Deparment report on human rights in China last year stated: "According to credible reports, the Chinese government authorities continued to commit serious human rights abuses in Tibet, including instances of torture, arbitrary arrest, detention without public trial, and lengthy detention of Tibetan nationalists for peacefully expressing their political views.

"Tight controls on religion and on other fundamental freedoms continued, and intensified during the year."

Open protests against Chinese rule led to the March 8, 1989 declaration of martial law in Lhasa -- the first such imposition in the history of the People's Republic.

Following the pattern of the 1959 uprising, a small-scale protest staged by a dozen monks snowballed into three days of looting and riots.

At least 70 Tibetans were killed as armed police moved in to squash the demonstrations. Checkpoints were erected around the city, homes were summarily searched and all foreigners were expelled.

The approach of the double anniversary has prompted the already uneasy central authorities to issue warnings of zero tolerance for dissent.

"We must deal with splittist and sabotaging activities found anywhere and under any circumstance at their embryonic stage," Legqog, chairman of the Tibet Autonomous Region, told the official press in late January.

"There are more important festivals and sensitive occasions this year, and the task of safeguarding social and political stability is quite arduous," he said.

Chinese Vice-President Hu Jintao Friday called on Tibetans to "unswervingly maintain social stability" and "safeguard the unity of the motherland and ethnic solidarity."

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Last updated: 8-Mar-99