Exile Tibetans participate in a candle light vigil in solidarity with fellow Tibetans who have
self immolated, in Katmandu, Nepal, February 13, 2013.
A Tibetan monk who set himself on fire in Nepal's capital,
apparently to protest Chinese rule, has died of his injuries.
Hospital staff and police in Kathmandu say the man, in his early 20's, died
Wednesday, just hours after setting himself alight near a prominent Buddhist
religious site.
Sudip Pathak with the Human Rights Organization of Nepal - one of the only
people allowed to visit the protester's hospital room - told VOA the still
unidentified monk suffered burns on 96 percent of his body.
He is the 101st Tibetan to self-immolate as part of a four-year protest
campaign against Chinese rule in Tibet.
On Wednesday, sources inside China told VOA's Tibetan Service the 100th victim
was a 37-year-old monk from the Kirti Monastery in Ngaba, or Aba in Chinese. He
is believed to have died on February 3 after setting himself alight in a small
town.
Many of the initial self-immolation protests took place in that area and the
resulting crackdown by Chinese authorities has delayed information about the
situation.
The latest self-immolation in Kathmandu was apparently timed to coincide with
the important Tibetan New Year festival of Losar. Tibet's government in exile
had asked Tibetans to show solidarity with Tibetans inside China by not
celebrating the holiday.
Some eyewitnesses say the protester was chanting anti-China slogans before
police and other locals rushed in to put out the flames.
The self-immolation campaign began in February, 2009, to protest what some
Tibetans say is Chinese repression of their culture. China denies the charges
and says the suicide protests are acts of terrorism.
In the last two months, Beijing has criminalized acts of self-immolation and
targeted those accused of inciting them, imposing long jail terms and using
financial incentives to encourage the work of informants. The crackdown also
targets individuals that authorities say have sent videos or photographs of
such acts to contacts outside China.
More than 20,000 Tibetan exiles are living in Nepal, after a failed 1959
uprising against Chinese rule. Nepal has prohibited demonstrations by Tibetan
exiles and cracked down on such gatherings in recent years, to avoid angering
China.
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