Yet another Tibetan Buddhist monk doused himself in fuel and set fire to himself in China yesterday. This brings to ten the total number of monks who’ve resorted to this extreme form of protest since March this year. Advocacy group, Free Tibet said the latest self-immolation happened outside a monastery in the western part of the country – the site of eight of the last nine self-immolations. The purpose of these demonstrations is to protest against religious controls imposed by the Chinese government.

In a statement e-mailed late yesterday, Free Tibet said it had no information about the monk’s name, whereabouts, or whether he survived the incident. Nor did it specify its sources. The string of self-immolations, at least five of them fatal, “represents a wider rejection of China’s occupation of Tibet”, said Stephanie Brigden, the director.

China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Jiang Yu:

Encouraging some people to use this kind of extreme and cruel means to injure themselves is a type of violent terrorist act. These protests are out of sync with the wishes of people in the region. I think a few individuals inciting a few ignorant people to violate the law and damage local social stability cannot represent the broader desires of the local people. The Dalai Lama should take the blame for the burnings.

[Source: News24]