Two riotous monks who participated in the Gansu Province violence on March 18 have surrendered to authorities, police sources said on Thursday.

The two were from the Goinba Monastery in Zho'nyin County in the northwest China province, according to the provincial police department.

Under the influence of the March 14 Lhasa riot and a handful of instigators, Garzang Samdain and Garzang Samzhou, together with about 200 other monks, attacked local police stations, government offices and schools on March 18, the police said in a statement.

On that morning, the mob, some waving flags of the so-called "Tibetan government-in-exile" and shouting Tibetan independence slogans, committed assaults and vandalism, looting and arson in the Daogao Township, which is under the Zho'nyin County, according to the police.

They tore down the gates and walls of the Daogao Township government building and local police station, where they broke into offices, smashed doors and windows and wrecked the facilities, including computers and TV sets.

Afterwards, Garzang Samdain and other rioters set the offices, some vehicles and documents ablaze with gasoline.

Garzang Samzhou and other rioters then broke into the Daogao Primary School. They took the national flag down from its pole, tore it into pieces and raised the flag of the so-called "Tibetan government-in-exile".

After their vandalism spree, they held an illegal parade, according to police.

During the riot, they destroyed 76 rooms in the buildings they ransacked, smashed 31 computers and 40 TVs, as well as one car, 17 motorcycles and a farm vehicle. The economic loss amounted to about 7.5 million yuan (US$1.1 million), said police.

After the violence, police of the Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Gannan, which is superior to Zho'nyin County, issued a circular urging the criminal suspects to surrender. Garzang Samdain and Garzang Samzhou then came forward and confessed their crimes.

An investigation revealed the two were of the Tibetan ethnic group, with Garzang Samdain born in 1971 and Garzang Samzhou in 1980.

(Xinhua News Agency April 17, 2008)