 |
| A child of the Tibetan community in Bodhgaya, north India, at a candle-lit vigil on 8 January held in memory of self-immolations in Tibet. |
Two former Tibetan monks have set themselves on fire in far western China, in what an activist group said was the latest in a series of self-immolation protests against Chinese rule.
The official Xinhua News Agency yesterday reported a 22-year-old man set himself on fire at a crossroads in Aba prefecture in Sichuan province on Friday and was hospitalised with serious burns. It said another man burned himself to death in a hotel room on the same day. Both of the men were former monks, it said.
The London-based group Free Tibet earlier said the men were protesting at tight Chinese control over Tibetan life and culture.
At least 14 monks, nuns and former monks are now believed to have set themselves on fire in the past year, mostly in traditionally Tibetan areas of Sichuan that have been focal points of opposition to central government control.
Most have chanted for Tibetan freedom and the return of their spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, who fled to India amid an abortive uprising against Chinese rule in 1959.
China however claims Tibet has been part of its territory for centuries.
0 comments:
Post a Comment