Tibetan burns himself to death in China: reports Beijing, 18 Dec 2014: In a fresh incident of self-immolation in Tibet after a gap of three months, A 33-year-old Tibetan has died after setting himself on fire to protest at Chinas rule of the Himalayan region, a rights group and overseas media said on Wednesday. Sangye Khar set himself alight outside a police station in Xiahe county in western Chinas Gansu province, the Washington -based International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) and US-funded Radio Free Asia (RFA) both said. There have been more than 130 such acts in Tibet and elsewhere since 2009, most of them fatal, both the ICT and RFA said. He set fire to himself in Amuqu township on Tuesday morning, and died in protest against Chinese policies in Tibetan areas, RFA said, citing anonymous local sources. The protest took place as authorities were reported to have stepped up a security crackdown as Tibetans gathered to mark a major religious festival. The festival was the anniversary of the death of Tsongkhapa, who founded the Gelugpa or Yellow Hat school of Tibetan Buddhism in the 15th century. RFA said authorities had stepped up security and clamped down on communications, including the Internet in the wake of the self-immolation. The ICT, meanwhile, said the situation in the area is tense. Self-immolations peaked in the run-up to the ruling Communist Partys pivotal five-yearly congress in November 2012, and have become less common in recent months. The most recent such act was also outside a police station in a Tibetan-populated area of Gansu. Student Lhamo Tashi died after setting himself on fire in front of a police station in Hezuo county in September, reports said. The previous immolation was reported in April. Many Tibetans in China accuse the government of religious repression and eroding their culture, as the countrys majority Han ethnic group increasingly moves into historically Tibetan areas. Beijing condemns the acts and blames them on exiled Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama, saying he uses them to further a separatist agenda. The Dalai Lama, a Nobel Peace laureate who has lived in India since 1959 after a failed uprising in Tibet, has described the burnings as acts of desperation that he is powerless to stop. (AFP)
Posted on: Fri, 19 Dec 2014 05:11:06 +0000
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