Beijing (dpa) – A Tibetan monk has died in the latest self-immolation protest against the Chinese government in the south-western province of Sichuan, reports said on Thursday. Lobsang Sherab, 20, set fire to himself late Wednesday in Cha township, or Chara in Tibetan, in Sichuan's restive Aba, or Ngaba, area. Sherab had returned to Cha on Monday from the Kirti monastery, where he was a monk, London-based Free Tibet and US-based Radio Free Asia said. He died immediately after his protest, the broadcaster quoted Kanyag Tsering, an Indian-based exiled monk from Kirti, as saying. “The Tibetans who were in the area tried to take his body away, but the Chinese security forces intervened, prevented them from doing so, and took the body, much to the anger of the Tibetans,” Tsering said. “The Chinese security forces also ordered shops in the township to close following the self-immolation, apparently as a precautionary move,” he said. Many of the 30 other self-immolations reported in Tibetan areas since 2009 occurred near Kirti monastery. A Tibetan protester also died after setting fire to himself in New Delhi on Monday ahead of a visit by Chinese President Hu Jintao, who is in India for a summit of the BRICS group of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The Chinese government has tightened security in most Tibetan areas this year after an escalation of the self-immolations and other protests, many of them by monks. BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/OFcEg Tags: China, Death, Immolate, Tibet Section: East Asia, Latest News
