Beijing (dpa) – A Tibetan teenage girl and a widowed mother died after separate self-immolations in restive areas of western China, reports said Monday, following 22 other self-immolations in Tibetan areas of China in recent months. The unidentified girl from the Tibetan Middle School in Maqu county town, or Machu in Tibetan, in Gansu province set fire to herself Saturday at a market, US-based Radio Free Asia said. Police took away the girl's body after Han Chinese vendors called them to the market, the broadcaster quoted a Tibetan exile with contacts in Maqu as saying. Teenagers from the Tibetan Middle School had previously protested government controls on Tibetans and police had detained several students, it said. On Sunday, a 32-year-old Tibetan woman died after setting fire to herself in Aba town, known as Ngaba in Tibetan, in the neighboring province of Sichuan, the London-based campaign Free Tibet said. The woman, identified by the single name Rinchen, self-immolated near a police station at the main gate of the Kirti monastery, the group said. It said Rinchen, a widowed mother of four children, shouted slogans in support of freedom for Tibet and the return of the exiled Dalai Lama, Tibetan Buddhism's highest spiritual leader. Monks and lay Tibetans took Rinchen's body into the monastery, reports said. The Chinese government has tightened security in most Tibetan areas this year amid a series of protests and self-immolations. “Tibetans are living under de facto martial law,” Free Tibet director Stephanie Brigden said in a statement on Rinchen's death. “China's response to protests – which are increasingly widespread – has been to intensify repression and surveillance, pushing Tibet deeper into crisis,” Brigden said. The government has accused exiled supporters of the Dalai Lama of encouraging self-immolations and other protests, despite his declared opposition to self-immolations. Since widespread anti-government protests in 2008, it has tightened controls in all Tibetan areas, turning away journalists, limiting the access of foreign tourists and cutting off communications in some places. Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin last month said tougher measures for “social management” of Tibetan areas were “absolutely necessary.” Tighter control was “helpful to combat separatist activities and safeguard social stability,” Liu said. The Dalai Lama has lived in exile since he fled to India in 1959 following a failed uprising against Chinese rule of Tibet. BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/87fI7 Tags: China, Immolation, Protest, Tibet, Woman Section: East Asia, Human Rights, Latest News, South Asia, Women
