Tibetan woman sets herself on fire in Sichuan town
PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 24 December, 2014, 6:13am
UPDATED : Wednesday, 24 December, 2014, 6:13am
Agencies in Beijing
Candle light vigil for Tsepe Kyi after she self-immolated herself for the Tibet cause. Photo: EPA
A Tibetan woman died yesterday after setting herself on fire in protest against Beijing's rule in the Himalayan region, a rights groups and a media report said.
Tsepe Kyi set herself alight in the centre of a town in Aba county, known in Tibetan as Ngaba county, in Sichuan , the pressure group Free Tibet and US-funded Radio Free Asia said. The 20-year-old set fire to herself in "protest against China's repressive policies", Radio Free Asia reported, citing anonymous sources in the area.
Tsepe had been living with her parents as a nomad at the time of the protest and her brother was taken away by the police following her death, according to the report.
Xinhua said a 21-year-old woman, identified as Tsepe, set herself on fire at 3pm in Aba county, citing government sources.
The protest is the second this month in the same town where a father of two set himself alight and died, according to the International Campaign for Tibet.
Calls to the police and the Aba government were not answered.
There have been more than 130 cases of Tibetans setting themselves on fire on the mainland since 2009, most of them fatal, according to Radio Free Asia and the International Campaign for Tibet. The two organisations said earlier this month a Tibetan man died after setting himself on fire in Gansu .
Many Tibetans on the mainland accuse the government of religious repression and eroding their culture. Beijing condemns the acts and blames them on the exiled Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama, saying he uses them to further a separatist agenda.
Agence France-Presse, Reuters
