Young Tibetan Burns Himself in a Monastery FEB. 24, 2013 — A young Tibetan torched himself at a monastery in Qinghai province on Sunday in protest against Beijing's "hardline" policy in Tibet, triggering a security clampdown, according to sources. Phakmo Dhondup, in his 20's, set himself alight at the compound of the Jachung monastery in Tsapon township in Tsoshar (in Chinese, Haidong) prefecture’s Bayan Khar (Hualong) county but was immediately taken to a nearby hospital with serious burns, the sources from inside Tibet said. "At around 8 p.m., he self-immolated in protest against the hardline Chinese policy in Tibet," a source told RFA's Tibetan Service. "He was immediately rushed to the local hospital and is being treated." Phakmo Dhondup, who lives in Upper Sakar village close to the Jachung monastery, is the 105th Tibetan so far to self-immolate in protests questioning Chinese rule in Tibetan-populated areas and calling for the return of Tibet's spiritual leader the Dalai Lama. "Monks at the monastery are conducting special prayers for his recovery," the RFA source said. "At the same time several hundred security forces have arrived at the monastery and imposed restrictions," the source said. Beijing has stepped up its crackdown to preempt Tibetan self-immolation protests but to no avail. Chinese courts have jailed a number of Tibetans, including monks, over their suspected roles in the burnings in the last few weeks. Some were given jail terms of up to 13 years. Human rights groups have criticized the Chinese authorities for criminalizing the burning protests and cracking down on Tibetans deemed to have provided encouragement or support. Chinese authorities have also deployed paramilitary forces and restricted communications and travel in the areas where self-immolations have occurred. Appalled Many of the recent self-immolators are young Tibetans appalled by the human rights abuses and excessive controls imposed by the Chinese authorities, rights groups say. Twenty-two of the Tibetans who have self-immolated so far have been 18-years old or younger, according to figures compiled by the International Campaign for Tibet advocacy group. More than 80 of the 105 self-immolators so far have died in the burnings. The self-immolations by the new generation of Tibetans born under Chinese rule “are sending an unequivocal message to the world about the gravity of the situation in Tibet,” said Dicki Chhoyang, Minister of Information and International Relations in the Dharamsala-based Tibetan exile government, the Central Tibetan Administration. She told a meeting in Geneva last week ahead of the 2013 UN Human Rights Council session that China must be held accountable to the pledges it made to the world body to improve its human rights record. Beijing has defended its rule of Tibet and says the Dalai Lama and other Tibetan leaders in exile have orchestrated the self-immolations from their base in India. But Tibetan exile leaders deny involvement in the burnings and have called on Tibetans in Tibetan-populated regions of China to exercise restraint. Reported by 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-02242013160717.html Radio Free Asia is a private, nonprofit corporation broadcasting and publishing online news, information, and commentary in nine East Asian languages to listeners who do not have access to full and free news media. RFA ’s broadcasts seek to promote the rights of freedom of opinion and expression, including the freedom to “seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.” RFA is funded by an annual grant from the Broadcasting Board of Governors. If you no longer wish to receive RFA news releases, send an e-mail to engnews-leave(a)rfanews.org . To add your name to our mailing list, send an e-mail to engnews-join(a)rfanews.org . ##### All media inquiries may be sent to Rohit Mahajan at mahajanr(a)rfa.org .

Vietnamese Reporter Fired for Critical Essay FEB. 26, 2013—A state-run newspaper in Vietnam has fired a journalist after he criticized the ruling Communist Party general secretary for speaking out against political reforms. The official Family and Society newspaper announced its decision to fire reporter Nguyen Dac Kien for “violating the rules of his contract” and said it was disassociating itself from his views in a statement issued Tuesday. “Family and Society would like to inform its readers that Nguyen Dac Kien violated the operating rules of the newspaper and his labor contract. Therefore, the discipline panel of the newspaper convened and decided to discipline Nguyen Dac Kien by firing him,” the statement read. “As of now, Nguyen Dac Kien is no longer with the newspaper and he is held accountable before the law for his words and behavior. Organizations and individuals wishing to contact the newspaper should speak with the office directly, not through Nguyen Dac Kien.” The announcement of his sacking came less than 24 hours after Kien’s essay, which criticized a recent speech by Communist Party general secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, became a viral sensation online in Vietnam. ‘Ready for anything’ Speaking to RFA’s Vietnamese Service on Tuesday, Kien maintained that he has done nothing wrong. But he said that he does not blame the newspaper for removing him because of the potential fallout from his article. “My awareness of citizen’s rights did not come yesterday or the day before—it has been a long process. The motivation to express that awareness came after listening to what [Trong] said on television,” he said. In an address carried on national television Monday, Trong had lambasted a recent “deterioration” of the country’s morals and ethics and slammed critics who had called for the removal of a constitutional provision that underlines the leadership role of the Communist Party. “Recently there have been some comments that have contributed to the deterioration of the political, ideological and moral environment,” Trong said. “There are people who have called for the removal of Article 4 of the Constitution, who have questioned the Party's leadership role [and] who have called for multiparty pluralism [and] who seek separation of powers and railed against the politicization of the military,” he said. Article 4 states that the Communist Party “is the force assuming leadership of the State and society.” “People take these ideas and express them through the mass media. If that isn’t contributing to deterioration, what is?" Trong asked. Kien, who is known for his nationalist views, wrote in response that Trong only had the right to criticize members of the Communist Party. “You are the general secretary of the Vietnamese Communist Party. If you want to use the word deterioration, then you can only use it in reference to people who are Party members,” he wrote. “If you and your comrades want to keep Article 4, maintain your leadership, politicize the military, and do not want pluralism or separation of powers, then it is your own wish and your party’s. You can’t assume that is the wish of the Vietnamese people,” he said, adding that such views are also unlikely to represent the entirety of the Communist Party. Kien also told RFA that despite the popularity of his article, he had done nothing especially courageous and that “anybody who is pushing for Vietnamese democracy has to make the same sacrifices I have.” “I’m not surprised by the decision to fire me. I understand and sympathize with the leaders of the newspaper … I would like people to sympathize with the newspaper—don’t strongly criticize them, because if I were them I might have done the same,” he said. He said he was “ready for anything” that he might face because of his decision to write the article, but said he hoped that everybody—from ordinary Vietnamese people to the leaders of government—might learn to be more open-minded and accepting of ideas different from their own. “I’m not worried for myself, but I worry about my family—my wife, my child, and my parents. I understand the path I have chosen.” Kien said. “My words are for everybody … In a free country, [what I did] is a normal thing. I hope we can all join hands to push for freedom and democracy in Vietnam.” Call for change Kien said in his article that no Communist Party document backed up Trong’s claims about moral deterioration being linked to calls for reforms. “There is no such article that says removing Article 4 constitutes deterioration, or that pluralism and the depoliticizing of the military amounts to deterioration. Only party corruption, or when party policy works against the benefit of the people, can it be called deterioration,” he said. In addition to the removal of Article 4, Kien called for a conference to set up a new constitution to better “represent the people’s spirit, not the Party’s” and for the implementation of a multiparty system in Vietnam. He expressed his support for the separation of powers with an emphasis on a system that increases autonomy for local government, the elimination of state-owned corporations, and the depoliticizing of the military. Reported by Chan Nhu for RFA’s Vietnamese Service. Written in English by Joshua Lipes. View this story online at: http://www.rfa.org/english/news/vietnam/fired-02262013175113.html Radio Free Asia is a private, nonprofit corporation broadcasting and publishing online news, information, and commentary in nine East Asian languages to listeners who do not have access to full and free news media. RFA’s broadcasts seek to promote the rights of freedom of opinion and expression, including the freedom to “seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.” RFA is funded by an annual grant from the Broadcasting Board of Governors. If you no longer wish to receive RFA news releases, send an e-mail to engnews-leave(a)rfanews.org. To add your name to our mailing list, send an e-mail to engnews-join(a)rfanews.org. ##### All media inquiries may be sent to Rohit Mahajan at <mailto:mahajanr@rfa.org> mahajanr(a)rfa.org.