Nun self-immolates in Tibet while appealing for return of Dalai Lama
A nun set herself on fire while crying out for the Dalai Lama to return to Tibet in the latest in a series of self-immolations by Tibetans protesting against Beijing's control over the region, overseas rights groups said.
A nun set herself on fire while crying out for the Dalai Lama to return to Tibet in the latest in a series of self-immolations by Tibetans protesting against Beijing's control over the region, overseas rights groups said.
Yeshi Khando walked around Kardze monastery and then set herself alight on Wednesday near the Ganzi county police station in Sichuan, the British-based Free Tibet group, the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) and US-funded Radio Free Asia (RFA) said.
The 47-year-old nun "called for the return of the Dalai Lama and also for his long life", RFA reported, citing anonymous sources. "She also called for freedom for Tibet."
RFA said that those present did not believe that she survived. Her body was quickly removed by security forces and her family was summoned by the police on Thursday, Free Tibet said.
Police and local officials refused to comment on the incident.
Without any breakthroughs on greater Tibetan autonomy, the frustration would continue, he said.
But Lau said an individual immolation case would not lead to similar incidents. "In Tibet, the radicals are still in the minority," he said.
Last week, Tibet's Communist Party secretary Chen Quanguo ordered Tibetan monasteries to display Chinese flags and to vow to assess Buddhist monks and nuns for their "patriotism".
There have been more than 130 cases of Tibetans setting themselves on fire in the country since 2009, most of them fatal, both the ICT and RFA said. Self-immolations peaked in the run-up to the Communist Party's five-yearly congress in November 2012, but have become less common since then.
Beijing condemns the acts and blames them on the Dalai Lama, saying he uses them to further a separatist agenda.
The Dalai Lama has described the self-immolations as acts of desperation that he is powerless to stop.
