New Delhi (dpa) – A Tibetan exile set fire to himself in New Delhi during a protest Monday against Chinese President Hu Jintao's upcoming visit, officials said. Jampa Yeshi, 27, doused himself with inflammable liquid before immolating himself near a group of around 1,000 protesters in the central business district of Connaught Place, but survived the ordeal, witnesses said. He was engulfed in flames as he ran for around 100 meters before collapsing to the ground, and police and other Tibetans tried to douse the flames. Police officials maintained that he suffered no life-threatening injuries. But leaders from the Tibetan Youth Congress (TYC), one of the organizers of the protest, said Yeshi had suffered severe burns and chances of his survival were low. It was the first case of self-immolation reported from India, amid a wave of similar incidents in Tibet over the past three years. Tibetan exiles said the protest was against Hu's visit as well as the ongoing Chinese occupation of Tibet and continued religious and cultural repression in the region. Hu is scheduled to visit New Delhi later this week for the fourth summit of the BRICS nations, which are Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. Scores of Tibetan exiles gathered in New Delhi and planned more protests in the run up to Hu's visit, TYC represetnatives said. The Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, and many of his followers fled to India's northern hill town of Dharamsala after China cracked down on the uprising in Lhasa on March 10, 1959. At least 110,000 Tibetans live in Dharamsala and 35 settlements in India. Six million Tibetans live in the Tibetan Autonomous Region and adjoining areas of China. BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/gfxrp Tags: China, India, Protest, Self-Immolation, Tibet Section: East Asia, Latest News, South Asia
