/ 4 November 2011

Tibetan sets himself on fire at Chinese embassy in India

A Tibetan activist had burns to his legs when he set himself alight outside the Chinese embassy in India, following a wave of deadly self-immolations.

A Tibetan activist suffered burns to his legs when he set himself on fire outside the Chinese embassy in India, following a wave of deadly self-immolations by ethnic Tibetans in China protesting repression.

Police overpowered 25-year-old Sherab TseDor and extinguished flames that engulfed his legs, a Reuters witness said.

“He’s suffering from superficial burns, minor burns, but he was taken away by police to hospital, said Youdon Aukatsang, a Delhi-based a member of Parliament for Tibet’s government in exile, which operates from a northern Indian hill town.

Aukatsang said Indian-born TseDor sent a note calling for an end to a Chinese crackdown in Tibet.

China has ruled what it calls the Tibet Autonomous Region since Communist troops marched in, in 1950. It rejects criticisms of rights groups and exiled Tibetans and has condemned the self-immolations as destructive and immoral.

Tibet’s spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, fled nine years after the takeover, following a failed uprising against Chinese rule. He now lives in the Indian town of Dharamsala.

Eleven ethnic Tibetans are known to have set themselves on fire this year in a region of southwest China that has become the centre of defiance against strict Chinese control.

Nun Qiu Xiang burnt herself to death on Thursday in Sichuan province, Xinhua news agency said.

Last week, a Tibetan Buddhist monk doused himself in fuel and set himself ablaze in Sichuan. — Reuters