Tibetan burns himself to death in China in 101 self-immolation
A Tibetan man burned himself to death in protest against Chinese rule, reports and Western rights groups said on Thursday, bringing the total to have set themselves on fire to at least 101.
US-based Radio Free Asia said the man, Lobsang Namgyal, who it described as a former monk from the Kirti monastery, self-immolated last week near a police station in Aba prefecture, a Tibetan area of Sichuan province in southern China.
“He ran toward the police station, calling out slogans with his body on fire, and died at the scene,” it cited exiled Tibetan monks as saying. “Police then cremated his remains and handed them over to his family.”
He ran toward the police station, calling out slogans with his body on fire, and died at the scene
The 37-year-old was one of a family of four brothers and four sisters and was detained and harassed last year by police, it cited the exiles as saying.
The Washington-based International Campaign for Tibet described him as a monk and said he was “known as a serious and exceptional scholar”. The first Tibetan to set himself on fire was also from Kirti monastery, it added.
Later on Thursday, police in Nepal say a Tibetan protester who set himself on fire in Nepal’s capital to protest against China has died at a hospital.
Police spokesman Keshav Adhikari said the man died on Wednesday night, hours after he self-immolated. He says police are still trying to identify the man, who appeared to be about 21 years old. No one has claimed the body yet.
The man set himself on fire and chanted anti-China slogans in the Boudhanath area of Katmandu on Wednesday.
