Author: Maureen Fan
Publication: Washington Post
Date: February 28, 2009
URL: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/27/AR2009022701425_pf.html
A young Tibetan monk was shot by Chinese police
after he set himself on fire Friday, the third day of the Tibetan New Year,
at a market in Sichuan province's Aba prefecture, Tibetan activist groups
said, citing eyewitnesses.
Many Tibetans this year are avoiding celebrating
the New Year or are instead using the 15-day holiday to commemorate those
killed in deadly riots in Lhasa last March. Chinese authorities, determined
to avoid a recurrence of the violence, have sharply increased security patrols,
detentions and so-called reeducation campaigns. They are especially nervous
about March 10, the 50th anniversary of the 1959 Tibetan uprising, which Chinese
troops forcibly suppressed shortly before the Dalai Lama fled into exile and
Beijing imposed its own government in Tibet.
Witnesses told the activist groups that the
monk's protest came shortly after he and about 1,000 other monks were refused
entry to the main prayer hall at the Kirti Monastery in Aba because local
authorities had forbidden observation of Monlam, a traditional prayer festival
held after Losar, as the New Year is known. In defiance of the order, the
monks sat down outside to begin their prayers about 1 p.m. while older monks
pleaded with them to disperse, according to Students for a Free Tibet and
the Washington-based International Campaign for Tibet.
The monks complied, but then a monk in his
20s named Tapey came out of the monastery, took out a homemade flag bearing
a photograph of the Dalai Lama and at 1:40 p.m. walked to a nearby street
market. He had doused himself with oil by the time he reached an intersection
in the market, where he set himself on fire, the activist groups said.
Witnesses said police then fired three shots
at Tapey. At the first shot, he fell, said Kate Saunders, a spokeswoman for
the International Campaign for Tibet, and officials removed him from the scene.
Eyewitnesses said they believed he was dead,
but his condition has not been confirmed.
Phones at the public security bureau and government
offices in Aba county were not answered Friday night and early Saturday. A
doctor at Aba Hospital who gave his surname as Luo said, "Even we don't
know where the monk is. Hospital officials had a meeting and told us not to
say anything."
After the incident, 500 monks from the monastery
immediately began funeral rites for the monk.
A Chinese employee of an Internet cafe surnamed
Mu said the streets of Aba were largely empty, except for armed policemen.
Shops have been closing earlier than usual, , he said.
The Kirti Monastery in Sichuan has links to
the Kirti Monastery in Dharmsala, India, where monks said eyewitnesses in
Tibet had reported the self-immolation and the shooting, the activist groups
said.
Dozens of Tibetans from in and around Aba
prefecture were killed last year.
