A YOUNG mother of three became the latest Tibetan to burn herself to death in protest against Chinese rule, activist groups said, while authorities have rounded up hundreds of people after two self-immolations in Lhasa.
The woman, known as Rechok (33), set herself on fire outside the Jonang monastery in the Aba region of Sichuan province, which is dominated by ethnic Tibetans, the advocacy group Free Tibet said. She died at the scene and her body was to be cremated at the temple.
The recent self-immolations have sparked a massive security crackdown, especially as the two immolations in Lhasa were the first in the provincial capital since the current wave began.
“We have reports of arbitrary detentions in the vast majority of places where there have been protests and self-immolations, and in many places there have been disappearances,” said Free Tibet spokeswoman Harriet Beaumont.
Lhasa has been heavily guarded by Chinese police and soldiers since deadly anti-government protests in March 2008. Chinese authorities have branded the self-immolators “terrorists”, and they have confirmed some of the self-immolations but not all of them.
Rechok becomes the 35th Tibetan to immolate since March last year to protest at the growing influence of Han China in the Tibetan plateau and to seek the return of the Dalai Lama, who fled in 1959 amid a failed uprising against Chinese rule.
At least 27 of those who set themselves on fire have died. By some estimates, 38 people have torched themselves since the current wave began.
Most of the immolations have taken place outside the Tibetan Autonomous Region, in Sichuan province, which has a sizeable Tibetan population, focused on two prefectures – Aba, which the Tibetans call Ngawa, and Ganzi, or Kardze in Tibetan. About one million Tibetans live in these areas.
