Authorities have sealed off Kirti Monastery in Sichuan province and ordered a re-education programme there following unrest triggered last month when a young monk set himself on fire and died in an apparent anti-government protest.

The International Campaign for Tibet, a US-based rights group with exile sources who have contacts in the region, said paramilitary police raided the monastery Thursday night and took away more than 300 monks.

Police then beat a group of laypeople who had been standing vigil outside Kirti, leading to the deaths of two Tibetans aged in their sixties, ICT said.

"People had their arms and legs broken, one old woman had her leg broken in three places, and cloth was stuffed in their mouths to stifle their screams," an exiled Kirti monk was quoted as saying by the rights group.

The Tibetan government-in-exile in the northern Indian town of Dharamshala said in a statement it was "deeply concerned" by the "grim situation at the Kirti Monastery".

It appealed to governments around the world to persuade China "not to use force to resolve the crisis that is facing the monks".

"In the absence of outside monitoring teams and lack of adequate legal protection and free media, we are concerned that the situation might grow into one of genocide," the statement added.

The government-in-exile was founded by Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama after he fled his homeland in 1959 following a failed revolt against Chinese rule.

Police in Aba district, where the monastery is located, said they had no information and local residents refused to comment when contacted by AFP.

The official Xinhua news agency reported Friday that local authorities had started a "legal education" programme at Kirti due to the "problems" there and "illegal activities" committed by some monks.

Local police say the monk's self-immolation on March 16 "was a carefully planned and implemented criminal case, which was aimed at triggering disturbances," Xinhua said in a separate report Saturday.

Tensions run deep in Tibetan areas of China, where many Tibetans accuse the government of trying to dilute their culture, and cite concern about what they view as increasing domination by China's majority Han ethnic group.

That tension erupted in violent demonstrations in March 2008 in Tibet's capital Lhasa, which then spread into neighbouring Tibetan areas of China, including Kirti.

Travel agencies told AFP Saturday that Aba and the neighbouring Tibetan-populated Ganzi prefecture had been closed to foreigners.

"The provincial tourism bureau told us two days ago that foreign tourists cannot go to Aba or Ganzi," an employee at the Sichuan branch of China Travel Service told AFP. Another travel agent said she thought the ban was related to "Tibetans".

Tibet's exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama has warned of "catastrophic consequences" if the situation at Kirti worsens. China's foreign ministry, however, said Tuesday the situation there was "normal".

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