MCLC: 3 Tibetan herders self-immolate

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: kirk (denton.2 at osu.edu)
Subject: 3 Tibetan herders self-immolate
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Source: NYT (2/7/12):
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/07/world/asia/three-tibetan-herders-self-imm
olate-in-protest.html

Three Tibetan Herders Self-Immolate in Protest
By SHARON LaFRANIERE

BEIJING ‹ In a fresh illustration of growing turmoil among ethnic Tibetans
in Sichuan Province, three livestock herders have set themselves on fire
to protest what they saw as political and religious repression at the
hands of the Chinese authorities, according to a Tibetan rights group and
an ethnic Tibetan living in Beijing.

If confirmed, the latest cases would bring the total self-immolations over
the past year to 19, an unprecedented wave of self-inflicted violence
among the tiny ethnic minority in China, according to scholars. They were
also apparently the first by lay people, rather than current or former
members of the clergy, suggesting that self-immolation may be gaining
popularity as a form of dissent.

The incidents took place Friday in a remote village in Seda County, once a
center of Buddhist teaching, but reports did not surface until the weekend
because the government has cut Internet and telephone connections to the
area, said Tsering Woeser, a Tibetan poet in Beijing.

She said that one of the three men had died and that the two others,
believed to be about 30 and 60 years old, were severely injured.

Local officials denied any new self-immolations had occurred. ²Everything
is all right here although we still have no Internet access,² Wang
Yongkang, the party secretary for Seda County told Global Times, a
Communist Party English-language daily.

The self-styled Tibetan government in exile said Monday it has not
confirmed the reports from Seda. But at a press conference in Dharamsala,
India, the organization¹s seat, one official said the self-immolations
should provoke the Chinese government to re-examine its repressive
policies toward Tibetans.

³What is so wrong in Tibet that people are resorting to such drastic
action?² asked Dicki Chhoyang, head of the information department.

Faced with the worst outbreak of unrest among ethnic Tibetans since the
2008 riots in Lhasa, Tibet¹s capital, authorities sealed off a number of
counties in Sichuan Province and vastly intensified security. The
government blames Tibetan separatists for inciting the violence.

Police last month clashed with protesters in Seda, which is on the border
of Gansu Province, and in Luhuo County, known in Tibetan as Draggo, about
80 miles, to the south. Accounts of the number of deaths ranged from two
to as many as 11, with dozens wounded.

Chinese officials assert that security officers shot one rioter dead in
self-defense on Jan. 23 after a mob armed with rocks, batons and gas
bottles stormed the police station Luhuo. Another protester was killed in
Seda the following day when rioters attacked the police station there,
they said.

Until Friday, the ethnic Tibetans who set themselves afire were all
reported to be monks, nuns or former clergy members. The first case
occurred in the spring of 2009 when a monk burned himself at a monastery
in Aba, a town in the northwestern corner of Sichuan Province.

The latest reports suggest that self-immolation as a form of protest is
spreading beyond the Tibetan clergy, Robert Barnett, director of the
Modern Tibetan Studies Program at Columbia University in New York, said in
a telephone interview.

Ms. Woeser, the poet, said that the three recent victims had herded sheep
and cows and were not members of the clergy. Unlike the others, they lived
far from the larger towns and monasteries where past cases had occurred,
according to media reports.

³There is a lot of frustration in the Tibetan areas,² Mr. Barnett said.
³People are saying they aren¹t being listened to; the government didn¹t
respond constructively to the protests in 2008 and didn¹t respond
constructively to the whole year we¹ve seen of self-immolations.²

In Sichuan Province in particular, he said, the authorities have blocked
off monasteries and adopted other aggressive measures that have raised
tensions.

Michael Wines contributed reporting and Mia Li contributed research.