Tibetan Mother of Four Dies in Burning Protest
March 24, 2013 — A Tibetan mother of four burned herself to death on Sunday in protest
against Chinese rule in Sichuan province's Ngaba (in Chinese, Aba)
prefecture, bringing the number of Tibetan self-immolations so far to
110.
Kalkyi, 30, torched herself near a monastery in Dzamthang
(Rangtang) county "to highlight the Chinese policy of violent rule in
Tibet and Tibetan populated areas," a source inside Tibet told RFA's
Tibetan Service.
Local Tibetans took her body into the Jonang
monastery immediately after the burning protest at about 3.30pm local
time before Chinese security forces arrived, sources said
Tibetan monks and laymen are conducting funeral prayers at the monastery, they said.
Kalkyi,
a mother of three sons and one daughter, all below 15 years old, was
from Barma township in Dzamthang in the Ngaba Tibetan Autonomous
Prefecture.
She is the 16th woman to self-immolate since the
fiery protests began in February 2009, questioning Chinese rule in
Tibetan populated areas and calling for the return of Tibet's spiritual
leader the Dalai Lama.
Restrictions tightened
So
far, 110 Tibetans have burned themselves in the desperate protests which
are not petering out despite tighter restrictions imposed by Chinese
authorities. Ninety of them have died,
Ngaba has been the epicenter of the Tibetan self-immolation protests.
On
March 13, a Tibetan woman, Konchog Wangmo, 31, burned herself to death
in Dzoege (Ruo'ergai) county in Ngaba but news of the burning was hushed
up by Chinese police who had grabbed her body, cremated it, and handed
over the remains to her family, according to sources.
Her
husband, Drolma Kyab, was detained when he refused to comply with an
order by the Chinese authorities who wanted to blame the self-immolation
on a family squabble, the sources had said.
Three days later, a
Tibetan monk from the restive Kirti monastery in Ngaba burned himself to
death to mark the fifth anniversary of a bloody Chinese crackdown on
Tibetans in the area.
Lobsang Thogme, 28, torched himself at the
monastery to highlight a March 16, 2008 crackdown on Ngaba in which
Chinese police fired on a crowd of Tibetans, killing at least 10,
including one monk.
'Heroes Street'
The main road
in Ngaba county was renamed last year by Tibetans as "Heroes Street"
after it became a constant venue of the burnings.
Chinese
authorities have recently tightened controls in Tibetan-populated areas
to check the self-immolation protests, arresting and jailing more than a
dozen Tibetans who they accused of being linked to the burning
protests. Some were jailed up to 15 years.
Human rights groups have criticized the Chinese authorities for criminalizing the burning protests.
The
authorities have also deployed paramilitary forces and restricted
communications in the areas where self-immolations have occurred.
Reported
by Lumbum Tashi and Yandon Demo for RFA's Tibetan Service. Translated
by Karma Dorjee. Written in English by Parameswaran Ponnudurai.
View this story online at: http://www.rfa.org/english/news/tibet/burning-03242013122241.html
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