Police clash with Tibetan protesters after self-immolation

monstersandcritics.com

Mar 17, 2011,

Beijing – Police clashed with hundreds of Tibetans who protested outside a monastery in China’s south-western province of Sichuan after a monk’s self-immolation, reports said Thursday.

Up to 1,000 monks and several hundred lay Tibetans gathered outside the Kirti monastery in Sichuan’s Ngaba area after Wednesday’s self-immolation of Lobsang Phuntsog, 21, London-based Free Tibet and other groups reported.

Police broke up the protest using clubs and electric batons, injuring some protesters and detaining several others, US-based Radio Free Asia quoted sources in the Tibetan exile community as saying.

The local government confirmed that Lobsang Phuntsog died in hospital early Thursday, Chinese state media reported.

The Xinhua news agency quoted an official as saying the monk died because of ‘treatment delays’ and gave his age as 24. Read more…

Tibetan monk burns to death in China protest – group

reuters.com

Wed Mar 16, 2011

BEIJING (Reuters) – A Tibetan Buddhist monk burnt himself to death in western China Wednesday, triggering a street protest against government controls on the restive region, a group campaigning for Tibetan self-rule said.

The self-immolation appeared to be a small repeat of protests that gripped Tibetan areas of China in March 2008, when Buddhist monks and other Tibetan people loyal to the exiled Dalai Lama, their traditional religious leader, confronted police and troops.

The 21-year-old, named Phuntsog, was a monk in Aba, a mainly ethnic Tibetan part of Sichuan province that erupted in defiance against Chinese control three years ago.

The monk « immolated himself today in protest against the crackdown, » said Kate Saunders of the International Campaign for Tibet, a London-based organisation.

« He shouted some slogans about freedom when he did it, » said Zorgyi, a researcher for the organisation, who is based in northern India, where many exiled Tibetans live.

« We’ve also received widespread information about a protest with nearly one thousand monks and lay people that came after, » Zorgyi said.

Police moved in to suppress the protest and arrested some monks, he said. Read more…

(Reporting by Chris Buckley; Editing by Daniel Magnowski)

Fiery death of Tibetan monk sparks protests: Activists

straitstimes.com

Mar 17, 2011

WASHINGTON – A YOUNG Tibetan monk set himself on fire and died triggering protests in Tibet on Wednesday, marking the third anniversary of violent anti-government riots there, an activist group said.

Police tried to extinguish the fire when a monk, called Phuntsog, set himself ablaze, but Tibetan exiles in contact with people in the Ngaba region said they then beat the 21-year-old who died.

The monk’s body was taken back to the Kirti monastery and protests flared involving hundreds of monks and civilians, the International Campaign for Tibet said in a statement. Police broke up the demonstrations, arresting an unknown number of monks, the activist group alleged. Read more…

AFP

Informations

Les Monastère de Kirti de l’école Gelugpa du Bouddhisme tibétain sont situés à Taktsang Lhamo et à Ngaba dans la préfecture autonome tibétaine et qiang de Ngawa, ancienne province de l’Amdo ainsi qu’à Dharamsala, en Inde.

~ par Alain Bertho sur 17 mars 2011.

Publié dans émeutes, riots, 暴動