Beijing - Members of a German parliamentary delegation allowed to visit Tibet said Monday that they were constantly escorted by Chinese minders during their trip and said it was deeply one-sided.

Holgar Haibach, the head of the four-member delegation from the human rights committee of the German Bundestag, said many of the group's questions were not answered and their minders in Lhasa, Tibet's capital, wanted to give the Germans the impression that all was normal in Tibet.

"The one-sidedness was formidable," he said, adding that the delegation was not allowed to visit a prison during its three-day stay in Lhasa.

The delegation added that the Chinese army's presence there was unchanged and massive.

Haibach said the Chinese minders told the delegation that all monks went voluntarily to "patriotic education campaigns," but one monk told the delegation that participation was required.

The campaign was introduced after deadly unrest in March 2008 in Tibetan-populated areas of China. While the Chinese side has accused the Dalai Lama, Tibetan Buddhism's spiritual leader, of provoking the unrest, trials nearly two weeks ago in which four Tibetans were sentenced to death for fatal arson fires did not present any findings on the accusation, delegation member Burkhardt Mueller-Soenksen said.

The trip was the first by German human rights experts since the outbreak of the protests against Chinese rule.

Another committee delegation travelled at the same time to the far-western region of Xinjiang, where Muslim Uigurs complain of oppression from China's government.

The delegations had earlier discussed the death penalty; administrative detention, which in China can be ordered without trial; and other human rights issues while in Beijing.

There were always two "red lines" in the discussions with Chinese authorities, Haibach said: Neither Chinese national unity nor the authority of the Communist Party could be called into question.

Delegation member Juergen Klimke called the visit a success even when many of its questions went unanswered. "When they say nothing, that also provides insight," he said. (dpa)