A Tibetan committed self immolation Saturday morning in Kardze (Ganzi) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, according to exiled Tibetans familiar with the region and a video circulating on social media.
The brief video shows a man in police uniform spraying a fire extinguisher on a smoky body lying on the ground while other policemen are running towards the scene and blocking shouting onlookers from approaching the body.
Tibetan sources said the incident took place at about 7.00 a.m local time at the main square in Kardze town, where large crowds are known to gather. Chinese police swiftly took the self-immolator away, the sources told RFA’s Tibetan Service.
Details about the individual were not immediately available. Attempts by RFA to reach sources in Kardze, as well as exiles who maintain contacts in the region, were unsuccessful. One source said t was possible that the internet may have been blocked in Kardze after the incident.
Saturday’s protest brings to 148 the number of self-immolations by Tibetans living in China since the wave of fiery protests began in 2009.The previous protest was on March 18, also in Kardze, where a 24-year-old Tibetan farmer named Pema Gyaltsen set himself on fire. His fate remains unclear.
Most protests feature demands for Tibetan freedom and the return of the Dalai Lama from India, where he has lived since escaping Tibet during a failed national uprising in 1959.
Reported by Sangay Dorjee and Kalden Lodoe for RFA’s Tibetan Service.. Translated by Benpa Topgyal. Written in English by Paul Eckert.
