Another Tibetan monk self-immolates to protest China/ENG

2012. február 18./AFP/Tibet Sun/TibetPress

A Tibetan monk burned himself to death on Friday in a protest against a crackdown on his monastery, in the latest of a wave of self-immolations against Beijing’s rule, an exile group said.

Damchoe Sangpo set himself alight after he unsuccessfully tried to persuade security forces to leave his monastery in Tso-ngon (Chinese: Qinghai Province), where Beijing was carrying out a “re-education” campaign after recent protests, London-based Free Tibet said.

The group said that Sangpo was in his late 30s and served on the Bongthak monastery’s Democratic Management Committee, a government-backed body through which China tries to enforce its rules in Tibetan areas.

US-backed broadcaster Radio Free Asia, quoting exiled Tibetans, said that China had sent forces to the monastery in Haixi prefecture after ordering the monks not to hold a traditional prayer festival.

“Damchoe objected to this and told the Chinese officials that if they didn’t withdraw their troops from the monastery, the monks should not be held responsible for any incident that might follow,” Radio Free Asia quoted an India-based monk named Shingsa as saying.

At least 21 Tibetans, many of them Buddhist monks, have set fire to themselves in recent months to protest what they say is religious and cultural repression.

China has disputed accounts of the incidents and accuses overseas groups and Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama of fomenting unrest.