Daily News and Analysis
February 6, 2013
China’s state-run CCTV has aired a second documentary on self-immolation protests in Tibet accusing the Dharamshala-based Tibetan Youth Congress (TYC) of sending its cadre into the restive Himalayan region to instigate more youths to commit suicide.
The 30-minute documentary mainly focussed on a string of self-immolations in Gannan in Gansu Province close to Tibet and charged the Voice of America (VOA) and Radio Free Asia of carrying out anti-China propaganda through their broadcasts.
At the instance of the Dalai-clique, VOA broadcast secret instructions to its contacts in Tibet, the documentary claimed.
The VOA broadcast featured a number of ceremonies held in Dharamshala, the seat of the Tibetan government-in-exile in India, to commemorate those who committed self-immolations and Dalai Lama’s praise for them, it claimed.
It also featured a 17-year-old survivor who lost both his legs recovering in the hospital.
The youth said when he tried to commit self-immolation he believed he was a hero but now regretted it and considered himself a fool.
The programme mainly focused on how a number of monks in Tibet came under the influence of the TYC and how it sent its cadre into Tibet to motivate youth to commit self-immolations.
About 95 people have committed self-immolations, which according to the oversees Tibetan groups were aimed at protesting Chinese rule and calling for the return of Dalai Lama from exile in India.
So far, a Buddhist monk and seven others have been convicted for instigating the self-immolations.
The monk has been given a two-year suspended death sentence.
