Tibetan man burns to death in Gansu, first self-immolation in China this year
A Tibetan man has died after setting himself on fire in protest at China’s rule of the Himalayan region, a rights group and overseas media said, relaying the first self-immolation of this year.
A Tibetan man has died after setting himself on fire in protest at China’s rule of the Himalayan region, a rights group and overseas media said, relaying the first self-immolation of this year.
The man burned himself to death at about 1pm (0500 GMT) on Saturday, London-based pressure group Free Tibet and US-based Radio Free Asia (RFA) said, in what is thought to be the first self-immolation since December.
The incident happened in Xiahe, a county in western China’s Gansu province known as Sangchu in Tibetan.
The body of the man, who was identified with the single name Tsebe, or Tseba, was carried back to his home village about four kilometres away following a protest, Free Tibet said.
The rights group said he was in his early 20s, while RFA cited its sources as saying he was 19.
The man called out for the Dalai Lama to be allowed to return to Tibet, RFA said.
RFA says 96 ethnic Tibetans, many of them monks and nuns, have set themselves on fire in China since February 2009 to protest against Beijing’s rule in Tibet.