By Thom Beal

BEIJING, July 22 (UPI) -- Security forces in Tibet's second holiest city arrested dozens of Buddhist monks 11 days ago amid growing tensions in the region over China's intervention in the selection of the new Panchen Lama, a human rights group charged Saturday. More than 30 monks from the Tashi Lhunpo monastery in Xigaze, the traditional home of the panchen lama, were arrested by heavily armed soldiers July 11, the Washington-based International Campaign for Tibet said.

The monks had refused a demand by local Chinese authorities to sign a proclamation denouncing their abbot, who was arrested weeks earlier for supporting Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the dalai lama, and his choice of a 6-year-old boy to be the 11th reincarnated panchen lama, the group said."The status of the arrested monks is currently unknown," it said.

The Dalai Lama, in exile in northern India since fleeing China after a failed anti-Chinese uprising in 1959, named in May Gedhun Choekyi Nyima the true reincarnation of the panchen lama, Tibet's second most senior spiritual leader. But the Chinese government declared the selection illegal and invalid, claiming only it has the authority to choose a successor.

The Communist Party, which had for years dismissed the concept of reincarnation basic to Tibetan Buddhist belief, launched its own search after the death of the 10th panchen lama in 1989. Following the arrests in Xigaze, police closed the monastery to the public and expelled foreign tourists from the city, the human rights group said. Tourists arriving in the capital of Lhasa were being denied overnight stays in Xigaze, which has fallen under a blanket of heavy security, and have been told the monastery would remain closed for more than a month, the group said.

The report came as tensions rise before September's 30th anniversary of China's establishment of the Tibet Autonomous Region, 14 years after Chinese troops seized the mountainous Himalayan region. Unconfirmed reports have detailed numerous demonstrations and arrests of nuns and monks in recent months, while human rights groups have cited classified documents as saying security forces are on alert amid fears of a separatist campaign to sabotage the celebrations.

Increased troop movements and checkpoints on roads are monitoring the movements of thousands of Buddhists eager to pay homage to the child panchen lama, living in the remote Nagchu prefecture, 288 miles (480km) northeast of Lhasa, sources said. A Foreign Ministry spokesman rejected the report as "groundless" and the government's official Xinhua news agency issued a statement saying Tibetans enjoy "unity, stable social order and freedom of religion."

In the runup to the anniversary celebrations, Beijing has stepped up a propaganda campaign aimed at portraying itself as a benevolent parent, nurturing backward Tibetans toward happiness and prosperity. It consistently denies accusations from Western governments and human rights groups that it is engaged in predatory economic development in Tibet and that it brutally suppresses religious and political dissent in the region.