Serthar under lockdown following self-immolation of three tibetan herders/ENG

2012. február 7./ICT/TibetPress

The Serthar area of eastern Tibet remains under tight lockdown after three Tibetan herders, including a 60-year old man, set themselves on fire on Friday (February 3). This brings the total number of self-immolations by Tibetans in Tibet since February 2009 to 20.

Two of the Tibetans have been named as Tsabtsel Tsering from Shulsang village in Puwu township, and Gyalri from Bumshul village in Puwu. According to several exile Tibetan sources who know people in the region, one of the three died. The circumstances of the self-immolations – whether all three Tibetans set themselves on fire simultaneously – are not known. The self-immolations occurred in a remote village in Serthar (Chinese: Seda), Kardze (Chinese: Ganzi) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan province, close to the border with Golog (Chinese: Guoluo) in Qinghai. The welfare and whereabouts of the two other Tibetans is not known. Radio Free Asia reported that as they set themselves on fire, the Tibetans called for freedom and for the return of the Dalai Lama to Tibet. (RFA, 4 February 2012).

The three self-immolations by Tibetan herders are the first by laypeople in Tibetan areas – the 17 Tibetans who self-immolated since February 27, 2009, have been mainly monks or former monks, and include two nuns. (ICT self-immolation fact sheet). The Tibetans who set fire to themselves in Serthar are also older than most others who have self-immolated, with one of them being 60 years old. Most of the self-immolations have been carried out by Tibetans in their late teens and early twenties, with the exception of Lama Sobha, the first reincarnate Tibetan religious figure to self-immolate (ICT report, 1 February 2012).

Global Times, an English-language newspaper run by the Chinese Communist Party, cited local officials as saying that no self-immolations had taken place recently, although it confirmed that internet connections had been blocked in the area. (Global Times, 6 February 2012). Global Times reported cited Wang Yongkang, secretary of Serthar county's Party committee, as saying: "’Everything is all right here, although we still have no Internet access,’ said Wang, who said there had been rumors saying some Tibetans were going to set themselves on fire, but ‘it has not happened.’"

In a separate Global Times report, the authorities acknowledged attempts to impose an information blackout in areas of eastern Tibet where protests (characterized by the authorities as ‘riots’) have occurred over the past few weeks, met by a violent crackdown. The Global Times reported: “After the riots, Internet connections and mobile phone signals were cut off for over 50 kilometers around the riot areas.” (Global Times, 3 February 2012).

Serthar was among three areas of Sichuan province where Tibetans protested against Chinese rule in recent weeks and were met by a violent crackdown. Vivid images of armed police response to a protest by Tibetans in Serthat (the Tibetan area of Kham), on January 24 can be viewed here. The images, which show a Tibetan man being beaten and dragged along the ground by armed police, were taken on the day that police opened fire on Tibetan demonstrators, killing one Tibetan man. The man who died has been named by Tibetan sources as Dawa Dragpa, and a vigil was held for him in Serthar on February 1.

Tibetan sources said that the town square in Serthar was "covered in blood" on January 24, after police opened fire on a crowd of Tibetans. Tibetan sources in exile said that hundreds of Tibetans gathered peacefully, and armed police did not take any immediate action. But after some time, tear-gas was fired and police started shooting into the crowd. One exile source said: "Tibetans were running everywhere to escape. There were Chinese taxi-drivers and other Chinese who had been in the area too were running with them away from the troops. Some couldn't run away because they were too seriously injured." According to various exile sources in contact with Tibetans in the region, leaflets or posters had been disseminated that were either similar or the same to those distributed in Draggo (Chinese: Luohuo) on (January 23, encouraging Tibetans not to celebrate the New Year, but to mark it by mourning (ICT report, 23 January 2012).