A Tibetan monk who has escaped the killing in his own country has found refuge in Newport.

But as he tells Mike Buckingham, the fight for Tibet's freedom must go on.

CHINESE students in Wales have been ordered by their government to whip up feeling against the Dalai Lama as the propaganda war over the Beijing Olympics hots up.

The claim comes from a Tibetan monk who fled his country after being beaten half to death by Chinese troops and is now sheltering with a family in Malpas, Newport.

Only a few days ago Lama Lobsang who is 34 learned that the aunt who had brought him up after the early death of his own mother had been shot dead by Chinese police.

Through the picture window of his bedroom the scene is one of tranquil spring as in the garden outside a riot of flowers burst into bloom.

Tranquility of a different kind reigns within the house in which Lama Lobsang whose family name is Topgyal has found refuge.

After rising each morning Lobsang prays for an hour, the murmur of Buddhist chants at odds with the increasing roar of traffic on the Malpas Road.

He them catches a bus for Cardiff where he works at a care home and where there have been confrontations between pro-Tibet protesters and Chinese students at Cardiff University.

In broken English Lobsang said there had been low-level protests in support of Tibet and the Dalai Lama in Cardiff which Chinese students on scholarships from their government had attempted to disrupt.

"I think the Chinese government is putting their students up to this."

He added that he had no knowledge of such a thing happening in Newport.

"Tibetans want the Chinese soldiers and police to go but we do not have an argument with the Chinese people themselves" Lobsang, a gently-spoken man dressed in the robes of his order said.

"We want the middle way. We do not even want independence from China. Just the right to have our own ancient way of life."

Tibet was occupied by the Chinese in 1950. A rebellion in 1959 was crushed and the Dalai Lama the nation's spiritual leader and thousands of his countrymen forced to take refuge in India.

Before fleeing to the UK two years ago Lobsang had been beaten and left for dead. After nine months of intensive surgery he was well enough to make an escape to Britain and found digs in Cardiff.

Six months ago the Newport family with connections to Amnesty International invited him to stay with them.

Through the Newportonians Lobsang was untroduced to the actress Joanna Lumley one of the prominent Britons who has taken up the Tibetan cause.

Ms Lumley and Lobsang are interviewed together on Wales This Week on ITV 1 Wales at 8 pm on Monday.

Lama Lobsang insisted that although the Chinese had beaten him and killed his aunt the Buddhist creed of forgiveness forbade him to harbour hatred.

"It is not the Chinese people. It is their government. But that government will eventually come into conflict with its own people.

"China has to trade with the world. If the rest of the world shows its feeling about Tibet then sooner or later China will have to listen.

"The violent demonstrations by Tibetans shown on television were Chinese troops dressed as Tibetan monks and causing trouble for the cameras.

"In Tibet the police and soldiers are coming at night and taking men from their houses and putting them in prison. Sometimes those like my aunt who speak against the Chinese occupation are killed.

"But we are a peaceful people.

The Olympic games are supposed to be about peace. Why does not the Chinese government itself want us in Tibet to enjoy peace?

"Before this thing with the Olympics some people in the West knew what was going on in Tibet and were trying to speak about it.

"Now very many more people understand.I will keep speaking about this as long as I am in Britain."

Lama Lobsang knows that for him to return to Tibet would mean instant imprisonment despite the media spotlight that would accompany him.

"But I hope to go back one day to a Tibet that is free as the UK is free.

"I have a nice job at a care home where there is compassion as there is at Newport with the people who have helped me.

"Compassion and goodness in Tibet must also come."