New | Local government threatens severe punishments for families of Tibetan self-immolators

A county in Sichuan province has issued guidelines aimed at punishing the direct family members of Tibetans who have set themselves on fire to protest Chinese rule in their homeland.

The guidelines issued by the Ruoergai county government are barring parents, partners, children and siblings of Tibetan self-immolators from travelling, running a new business, and obtaining a loan and social security benefits. The county is also known by its Tibetan name Dzorge.

The county’s annual work report mentions such guidelines being imposed without providing details. Calls to the county government on Friday went unanswered.

A staffer at a hotel in the county, who declined to be identified, said the guidelines existed.

Dated April last year, it lays down a series of punishments, should a self-immolation occur in the county. Over the last two years, nine of the more than 120 self-immolations in protest of Chinese rule occurred in the county, Woeser wrote in her blog.