Self Immolation Protests Rise in Tibet Via the New York Times: On March 3, a few days before the start of the spring semester, Tsering Kyi, 20, emerged from a public toilet at the town’s produce market, her wispy frame bound in gasoline-soaked blankets that had been encircled with wire, relatives and local residents said. In a flash she was a heap of flames, her fist raised defiantly, before falling to the ground, residents said. She died at the scene. Over the past year 29 Tibetans, seven of them in the last three weeks, have chosen a similarly agonizing, self-annihilating protest against Chinese policies. Of those, 22 have died… …Tsering Kyi’s death has been widely publicized by Tibetan activist groups eager to draw attention to the self-immolations. The Chinese state news media, which has ignored most of the cases, reported that she was mentally unstable after hitting her head on a radiator. Her grades started to sag, the official Xinhua news agency said, “which put a lot of pressure on her and made her lose courage for life and study.” In interviews, several Tibetan residents and relatives of Tsering Kyi’s contemptuously waved away such assertions. Instead, they were eager to discuss her devotion to her Tibetan heritage and the final moments of her life. When she emerged from the public toilets in flames, they said, the market’s Han Chinese vegetable sellers locked the front gate to prevent her from taking her protest to the street. No one, they claim, tried to douse the fire. When the police arrived, they forced witnesses to remain inside the market and returned Tsering Kyi’s body to the bathroom. Then, after collecting everyone’s cellphones, they methodically went through the devices and deleted any photographs of the incident. Related: Beijing-based Blogger Under House Arrest for Writing About Tibet, Committee to Protect Journalists. China Imposes Media Blackout on Sichuan, Qinghai and Autonomous Region of Tibet, Reporters Without Borders China Cuts Internet and Mobile Phone Service in Areas of Protest, Global Post Image: Video still of a 35-year-old nun burning herself alive via a February BBC report on self-immolation protests in Tibet.

Self Immolation Protests Rise in Tibet

Via the New York Times:

On March 3, a few days before the start of the spring semester, Tsering Kyi, 20, emerged from a public toilet at the town’s produce market, her wispy frame bound in gasoline-soaked blankets that had been encircled with wire, relatives and local residents said.

In a flash she was a heap of flames, her fist raised defiantly, before falling to the ground, residents said. She died at the scene.

Over the past year 29 Tibetans, seven of them in the last three weeks, have chosen a similarly agonizing, self-annihilating protest against Chinese policies. Of those, 22 have died…

…Tsering Kyi’s death has been widely publicized by Tibetan activist groups eager to draw attention to the self-immolations. The Chinese state news media, which has ignored most of the cases, reported that she was mentally unstable after hitting her head on a radiator. Her grades started to sag, the official Xinhua news agency said, “which put a lot of pressure on her and made her lose courage for life and study.”

In interviews, several Tibetan residents and relatives of Tsering Kyi’s contemptuously waved away such assertions. Instead, they were eager to discuss her devotion to her Tibetan heritage and the final moments of her life. When she emerged from the public toilets in flames, they said, the market’s Han Chinese vegetable sellers locked the front gate to prevent her from taking her protest to the street. No one, they claim, tried to douse the fire.

When the police arrived, they forced witnesses to remain inside the market and returned Tsering Kyi’s body to the bathroom. Then, after collecting everyone’s cellphones, they methodically went through the devices and deleted any photographs of the incident.

Related:

Image: Video still of a 35-year-old nun burning herself alive via a February BBC report on self-immolation protests in Tibet.

213 notes

Show

  1. neo-filipino reblogged this from bad-dominicana
  2. thisisamutiny reblogged this from futurejournalismproject
  3. missalexus reblogged this from monalisasmiled
  4. monalisasmiled reblogged this from faedenwolf
  5. faedenwolf reblogged this from sherlockstilinski
  6. piracywhiskeypoetry reblogged this from sherlockstilinski
  7. sherlockstilinski reblogged this from watertowersandwoodforts
  8. watertowersandwoodforts reblogged this from futurejournalismproject
  9. cheekie reblogged this from queennubian
  10. gotta-travel-on reblogged this from bloonanator
  11. mickeymousehasgrownupaclown reblogged this from futurejournalismproject
  12. fruta-extrana reblogged this from bad-dominicana
  13. the-frightened-flapper reblogged this from futurejournalismproject
  14. disssorderr reblogged this from futurejournalismproject
  15. reciprocating reblogged this from futurejournalismproject and added:
    I really wish that we cared enough about issues...the U.S. At the same time, I can’t...
  16. yours-only-esme reblogged this from futurejournalismproject
  17. xo-lilytran-xo reblogged this from niggasniggasniggas
  18. chael-blam reblogged this from futurejournalismproject
  19. niggasniggasniggas reblogged this from hismemorial
  20. holakendrax3 reblogged this from tac0bellee
  21. tac0bellee reblogged this from hismemorial
  22. hismemorial reblogged this from futurejournalismproject
  23. iamacollectionofmiscellanyandtea reblogged this from leptiir
  24. wordsbetweenbreaths reblogged this from ulyanovlenin
  25. themindislimitless reblogged this from leptiir
  26. fariyah reblogged this from leptiir
  27. leptiir reblogged this from theholykaron
  28. alltheprofoundwhatever reblogged this from futurejournalismproject
  29. quuer-r-beks reblogged this from futurejournalismproject
  30. snzk-snzk reblogged this from aeli-revolutionaren
  31. swimmingsimians reblogged this from dreams-from-my-father
  32. itakestwototango reblogged this from jayaprada

Blog comments powered by Disqus