Forty-one foreign diplomats attended the exhibition marking the 50th anniversary of democratic reforms in Tibet at the Cultural Palace of Nationalities in Beijing yesterday.

The military attaches from 22 countries stood out from the crowd by turning up in uniform and carefully listened, read and watched comprehensive documents about Tibet's history and its democratic reform.

"This exhibition is informative and offered me a great opportunity to see Tibet with fresher and wiser eyes", said a military officer from Mongolia.

He said the exhibition deepened his knowledge and understanding of the situation in Tibet, particularly about its past, from a foreigner's standpoint.

"I felt bad about the situation in Tibet before," a deputy military attache from Jordan, who preferred not to give his name, said after watching photos and objects showing the tortuous lives of Tibetan people before the democratic reforms in 1959.

The government dissolved the aristocratic local government of Tibet and more than 1 million serfs were freed in 1959.

"The lives of Tibetan people have changed dramatically," the Jordanian deputy military attache said. "What the Chinese government has done for the Tibetan people could not have been done by themselves."

The video showing scenes of last March's Lhasa riot attracted a lot of attention from the foreign diplomats.

"I watched some clips of the Lhasa riot on the TV last year and the incident is regrettable," a foreign diplomat said.

The Lhasa riot, incited by the Dalai Lama group on March 14 last year, killed 18 people.

(China Daily April 2, 2009)