Published by: World Tibet Network News, Saturday, March 23, 1996

BEIJING (AP) 22 March -- A bomb exploded near the Communist Party and government headquarters in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa, a London-based Tibet monitoring service reported today.

The explosion occurred Monday night, the Tibet Information Network said in a statement. There were no reports on any damage or injuries, it said.

Phone calls today to the government information office in Lhasa were not answered.

The explosion was the sixth in Lhasa in the past nine months, the network said. The others were at a Chinese monument to road construction workers, a fuel depot, an electricity supply station and the house of a Tibetan monk who belongs to a pro-China faction.

No one has claimed responsibility, and there is no evidence to show the bombings were carried out by the same group, the Tibet Information Network said.

China's military-backed rule has failed to quash a desire among some Tibetans for independence. China sent its army into Tibet in 1950 and formally took over the country a year later, claiming it historically was Chinese territory.