Official says China freed Lhasa rioters

More than 1,000 people who participated in a March riot in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa have been set free by China, a senior Chinese official says.

Zhu Weiqun of the Communist Party of China Central Committee said most of those detainees freed by the Chinese government had been individuals who turned themselves in on their own volition after the March 14 incident, China's official state-run Xinhua news agency said Wednesday.

The deputy head of the committee's United Front Work Department said the rights of all individuals detained during the riot were upheld.

Zhu said religious beliefs and ethnic backgrounds were not factored into legal rulings. Each Lhasa detainee also had access to full translator services during their trials.

The committee official did have harsh words regarding the Dalai Lama's take on the riot, Xinhua reported.

Many people died in the March 14 Lhasa riot, and he called it a peaceful protest ... so-called non-violence, Zhu said.