Tibetan immolates self in Golok

Phayul[Monday, October 06, 2014 19:35]

Kunchok, 42, DHARAMSHALA, October 6: A Tibetan man immolated himself near a police station in Gade County, Golog Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, eastern Tibet on September 16, a day before another Tibetan set himself ablaze in Tsoe County, Kanlho Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, according to the UK based Tibet Watch. Kunchok, 42, set himself on fire on 16 September near a police station Tsangkor Sholma township, Gade County, before onlookers doused the flames and rushed him to hospital. He became the 133rd Tibetan to resort to self immolation as a form of protest against the Chinese government. "News of his protest has just emerged as local Tibetans did not want to put him or those who assisted him at risk of arrest," said Tibet Watch. “I failed to accomplish my wish,” Kunchok kept saying after regaining consciousness at hospital. A father of two, Kunchok has sustained serious burn injuries and is currently undergoing treatment. His family, however, are concerned that he will succumb to his burns. Details of the hospital are being withheld to prevent him from being detained by security forces, said the Tibetan Watch. "Most surviving self-immolators are detained incommunicado; those who die in custody or whose bodies are taken by the police are usually cremated by the authorities who return the ashes to the family, preventing them from conducting normal funeral services."

Dalai Lama may return to Tibet

From the Washington Post

DHARMSALA, India — The Dalai Lama said Thursday that informal talks with the Chinese are continuing over his possible return to his homeland of Tibet — if only for a visit — and cautiously praised Chinese President Xi Jinping as a realist.

The Dalai Lama, 79, sat down for an interview in his temple in the north Indian town of Dharmsala before a celebration of the 25th anniversary of his Nobel Peace Prize, after a month of media speculation of a thaw between the exiled leader and the Chinese government.

The two sides have sparred for years over the future of Tibet. The Dalai Lama argues for autonomy for the Himalayan region he fled in 1959, while the Chinese accuse him of being a separatist. Just this week, another gathering of Nobel winners was canceled in South Africa after that country refused the Dalai Lama a visa, reportedly under pressure from China.

Meanwhile, the Chinese have continued to increase their control over the Tibetan region, with the opening of a new railway line last month that will give greater access to its rich natural resources. Foreign travel is still greatly restricted. And more than 130 people have self-immolated to protest the Dalai Lama’s exile and press for freedom for Tibet since 2009, including two during Xi’s recent visit to New Delhi.

Elsewhere in China, the streets of Hong Kong have been filled in recent days withthousands of pro-democracy protesters.