TIBETAN exiles in Britain vented their anger against the Chinese government today, amid reports of the deepening crisis in their homeland.

Chanting the slogans “Chinese out” and “long live Dalai Lama”, the protestors raised their fists at the closed windows of the Chinese Embassy building before singing the Tibetan anthem.

The sight of smiling Chinese officials peering down from inside the building added to the protesters' anger. A cameraman who was spotted photographing the protesters from inside sparked fears of reprisals by Chinese security forces against the families of the exiles back in Tibet.

British police officers also photographed the crowd after reportedly receiving information that Chinese activists had attempted to infiltrate the crowd and cause trouble.

The demonstrators, including many Tibetans living in exile in the UK as well as British supporters, waved Tibetan flags, banners and placards as they marched from Regents Park to Trafalgar Square.

Some wore woolly hats and scarves in the yellow, red and blue colours of the Tibetan flag against the bitterly cold weather.

At the head of the march was Lama Lobsang, an exiled Tibetan Buddhist monk, who was holding a photograph of the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s spiritual leader.

Matt Whitticase, from the Free Tibet Campaign said the photography by embassy staff was part of an apparent organised campaign to intimidate the movement.

“I’ve had my phone jammed with constant calls from Chinese people in the UK shouting crude obscenities and anti-Tibetan slogans,” he said.

“We suspect the embassy may be behind this. It’s time for the international community to take this issue more seriously. We are calling on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to cancel the plans to run the Olympic torch through Tibet and up Mount Everest.

“It will be an appalling symbol of the oppression of the Tibetan people by the Chinese Government.”

The protests come as the Tibetan government in exile claimed that as many as 100 civilians have been killed in clashes with security forces in recent days. Buddhist monks clashed with soldiers in the capital Lhasa on Friday in what is being described as the largest demonstrations in Tibet for 20 years. The protests began on Monday coinciding with the 49th anniversary of the 1959 uprising against Chinese rule.

Kate Hoey MP who was marching with the protestors in London on Saturday said: “This is not a protest against the Chinese people. What we are seeing is the oppression of a whole people and culture by a brutal government that are literally getting away with murder.

“We must use the Olympics to raise the profile of this issue. I will be calling on the government not to attend the opening ceremony in Beijing. The games should continue but there is no need to wine and dine with the Chinese government.”

Alice Randal, 30, a secondary school teacher from Oxford who had joined the march said: “China can’t have it both ways, either it joins the twenty-first century and the civilised world or we should expose them for the tyrants they are during the Olympics.”

Chonpel Tsering, a Tibetan living in east London who has been in the UK since 1982, said he wanted the British public to know the truth about what was happening in his country.

He said he welcomed Gordon Brown’s announcement on Wednesday that he will meet the Dalai Lama this spring but he criticised him for not doing so earlier and said the meeting had to be more than a “photo opportunity”.

He said: “What we want to hear from Gordon Brown is that the meeting will be more than gesture politics. Something concrete must also come out of it.”

Tsering said it was essential for independent observers - including journalists, the United Nations and the International Red Cross - to be allowed into Tibet to see what is going on for themselves.

On Thursday Prince Charles stepped into the growing diplomatic row when he said he will also meet the Dalai Lama when he comes to London in May.

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