Self-immolations increase
On Thursday, as the Chinese Communist Party unveiled its new leadership slate headed by Xi Jinping in Beijing, far across in the Himalayan plateau yet another disturbance engulfed the Tibet region, a twin self-immolation by teenagers in protest against Chinese rule of Tibet.
Tibetan exiles hold ceremonial scarves tied together as they participate in a candlelit vigil after reports of another self-immolation in Tibet, in Dharmsala, India, Friday, Oct. 5, 2012. Since March 2009, more than 40 Tibetans have died in self-immolations to protest China's rule over Tibet. Pic: AP
That brought the number of self-immolations to at least 74, of which 10 have taken place in just the last 15 days. They come at a time when the 18th Communist Party Congress in Beijing was seeking to project an image of national unity. However, the suicides are an outcry by Tibetans living under Beijing?s authoritarian rule. The burnings signal increased instability in the region, as the suicides shout demands for religious freedom and the return of their spiritual leader the 14th Dalai Lama before they set themselves alight. Yet these remonstrations remain largely overlooked in the wider world.
The Chinese government and Tibetan exiles have been pointing fingers at each other over who bears the responsibility for the turmoil. As most of the self-immolations or mass protests occur inside Tibet, the Chinese Foreign Ministry in Beijing and the Tibetan exile administration in Dharamsala, India, continue to issue statements blasting each other. Yet, for those inside Tibet these desperate self-immolations are becoming depressingly regular as a way of expressing resistance to Beijing?s hard-line policies.
Exiled Tibetans say the current Chinese regime denies Tibetan claims of suppression and indicts the exiles and the Dalai Lama of encouraging such acts. As well as the Chinese have flooded ethnic Tibetan areas with massive security forces and made lives of Tibetans nearly unbearable.
Continue reading at Asia Sentinel.?
Source: http://asiancorrespondent.com/92151/tibet-turmoil-intensifies-as-xi-jinping-takes-chinas-reins/
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