By Parameswaran Ponnudurai
Shooting Of Movie
Dressed in
full Tibetan traditional attire, the man set himself ablaze and shouted slogans
against Chinese rule in Dzatoe (Zaduo, in Chinese) county in the Yushul (Yushu)
Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture before he was taken away by Chinese security
forces, the sources said.
The man,
whose identity and other personal details were not immediately available, was
severely burnt when he was taken away, the sources quoted eyewitnesses as
saying.
“While burning, he shouted various slogans—calling for the
independence of Tibet, inviting the Dalai Lama and Karmapa (another senior
Tibetan Buddhist figure) to Tibet, asking for long life for the Dalai Lama and
addressing Lobsang Sangay (the head of the Tibetan government in exile) as the
King of Tibet,” one source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“He walked past several Tibetan shops in Dzatoe county’s shopping
complex with his body on fire. The shopkeepers threw water on his burning body
but his whole body was engulfed in fire.”
Witnesses said they saw his internal organs falling out at the
height of the fire before he was bundled away by Chinese police, the source
said.
It was the 52nd self-immolation protest since the wave of fiery
protests began in February 2009, with nearly all of the protests taking place
in Tibetan-populated provinces in western China.
Most were protests against Chinese rule and calling for the return
of the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s spiritual leader who now lives in exile in Dharamsala,
India.
Shooting Of Movie
Sources said the latest self-immolation could be linked to recent
local Tibetan protests against the shooting of a film by authorities wanting to
portray that Tibetans were happy under Chinese rule.
“Few days back, the Chinese authorities coerced the local Tibetans
to participate in a shooting of a movie themed on ‘happiness in Tibet,’” a
source was quoted as saying by India’s Tibet Express.
“The Tibetans resented it and expressed their unwillingness to
participate. This incident had led to protest against the Chinese policy,” the
source said.
The Dzatoe self-immolation came a day after more than 400 Tibetan
exiles from 26 countries meeting in India called for an end to self-immolation
protests by Tibetans challenging Chinese rule.
The meeting held in the hill-town of Dharamsala, seat of the
Tibetan government in exile and home to exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama,
expressed “grave concern” over the burnings and urged Tibetans inside Tibet not
to take “drastic actions.”
“Tibet is a thinly populated country, and in the present situation
losing even one life is a great loss for the Tibetan people,” said one of 31
recommendations and resolutions adopted by the delegates at the four-day
meeting, the biggest in four years. “Please preserve your lives in the future,”
it said.
Similar expressions of concern from exile figures and from the
Dalai Lama himself over the burnings have gone largely unheeded in the past.
NOTE—The above article is initially published
on RFA website.
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