New | Tibetan student burns to death in first self-immolation since April

A 22-year-old Tibetan man has burned to death in China’s Gansu province in what appears to be the first self-immolation in more than five months.

There have been around 130 self-immolations in protest against Chinese rule over Tibet since 2009. More than 80 Tibetans self-immolated in 2012 during the height of the protests, while numbers declined last year and this year.

On April 15, a 32-year-old man burned himself to death in Daofu county, Sichuan province. Around a year earlier, the area had been the site of a shooting by Chinese security forces when they opened fire on a crowd of worshippers who were marking the 78th birthday of the Dalai Lama, injuring at least seven people.

“It’s a sad thing that happens. Of course it’s very, very sad,” the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader told reporters during a visit to Australia. “In the meantime, I doubt how much effect [there is] from such drastic actions.”