KATHMANDU and CAIRO: The rising number of Tibetans self-immolating are the result of youth frustration and the desire for international support for their struggle, Tibet's Prime Minister-in-exile Sikong Lobsang Sangay said on Friday. He called the suicides a part of the “growing frustration” of youth toward the Chinese government. However, he said, Tibetan government-in-exile always support a peaceful movement for the struggle to regain their country. “There are cases of growing frustration amongst the Tibetan youth, who have resorted to violence, but we always support a peaceful movement for our cause,” Sangay said. His remarks came to a question raised by a student of Jamia Millia University where he delivered K R Narayanan Memorial lecture. Sangay said issues like economic marginalisation and political repressions are the main reasons prompting Tibetans to go for these extreme forms of protest. Addressing the students, Sangay said they want to improve the Tibetan Government system, so that democracy can be pushed forward. “We are in a transition phase,” he said. Tibet needs the support of the world media to keep its independence movement alive, he said referring to a report which said that self-immolations in Tibet was one of the least reported issues of the world. “The international media highlighted the Arab Spring after there was one self-immolation in Tunisia, while there are 89 such cases in Tibet as of now, which are going unnoticed, there must be one standard maintained for reporting such cases,” he said. Lobsang, who was elected as the political head of the Tibetans was voted to the Tibetan Parliament a year back by the exiled Tibetan diaspora, is an expert on Human Rights Laws and conflict resolutions. He said Tibetans considered India to be a source of inspiration and support for the movement and referred to the situation in Tibet as equally ‘grave' for India as well in respect of security and environment issues. “The Chinese have set up military airfields and railway lines in Tibet and have also built dams across rivers flowing into India…also the extensive deforestation in the region have resulted in floods in India and Bangladesh, which is indeed a matter of concern,” he said. In October, Tamdin Dorjee, 54, the grandfather of a revered Tibetan Buddhist figure, self-immolated on the grounds of the Tsoe monastery in Tsoe (in Chinese, Hezuo) county, the administrative center of the Kanlho (Gannan) prefecture in southern Gansu. In late August, a pair of teenage Tibetans passed away after setting themselves on fire outside the Kirti monastery the predominantly Tibetan area in Sichuan province as part of their protest against Chinese policies, the London-based Free Tibet group said in a statement. The two deaths were an 18-year-old monk and a 17-year-old former monk. The most recent immolations this month are the 52nd and 53rd self-immolations by Tibetans since the community began setting themselves on fire in 2009, in what Tibetans here in Nepal say is “a last resort for our struggle. We have nothing else to do and this is the only way to get attention." At least 25 of those who have set themselves on fire have perished as a result, Free Tibet said. “Free Tibet has grave concerns for the well being of the hundreds of Tibetans who we know are in detention following protests," Free Tibet Director Stephanie Brigden said in comments published by Reuters news agency. China largely refuses to answer questions related to the immolations and has dubbed those setting themselves on fire “terrorists" and criminals. The Beijing government has condemned the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of the Tibetan community, as promoting the self-immolations, despite the Dalai Lama urging Tibetans not to set themselves on fire and using other protest methods.
