Beijing: A teenage Buddhist nun committed self-immolation in a Chinese province bordering Tibet, the 18th such incident involving clergy in recent months with an apparent aim to stir up a campaign for return of the Dalai Lama from self-exile.
The death of 19-year-old nun identified as Tenzin Choedron was reported by the state-run Xinhua news agency on Monday.
She is the third nun to have committed suicide, while 15 monks attempted self immolations during the past few months. The nun hailing from from Siwa Nunnery in Aba Prefecture in southwest Sichuan province bordering Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) died on way to hospital after setting herself on fire on Saturday, the news report said.
Overseas Tibetan groups have claimed that the monks and nuns, who have committed self immolations, had been shouting slogans for return of the Dalai Lama.
The news of her death came as Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping, who is widely expected to succeed President Hu Jintao next year, left Beijing on Monday on a five-day visit to the US, in what is being seen by observers here as an image-building exercise to improve his international standing as well as rapport with the American leadership.
The Tibetan situation is widely expected to figure in his meeting with US President Barack Obama and other American leaders, as Washington is a firm advocate of reconciliation between China and the Dalai Lama who lives in exile in Dharamshala. Obama had met the Dalai Lama last year in Washington, drawing angry reactions from China which denounced it as a gross interference in its internal affairs.
China, in the past, had held talks with the Dalai Lama representatives, but the dialogue had not made any headway.
The recurring suicides and some incidents of violence in which two persons were killed in Sichuan province resulted in Chinese officials virtually fortifying Tibet and several of Tibetan-inhabited prefectures with stepped up security and administrative measures.
The local administration also geared up for the Tibetan New Year which falls on February 22 during which a large number of Tibetans visit the temples to hold religious rituals. China has accused the Tibetan Youth Congress of roping in young monks and nuns with a signature campaign to commit self- immolations in an organised manner and vowed to put down the unrest. In another development, Chinese officials, including the country’s police chief and residents in a southwest Tibetan region, attended a large memorial service held for a Tibetan policeman who was killed while arresting a gunman last week.
The memorial was held on Sunday for 29-year-old Pu Dongsheng at his home county of Luhuo, Garze Tibetan autonomous prefecture, in Sichuan, with a turnout of nearly 10,000 people, the Garze Daily reported.
Pu was killed in a gunfight during a hunt for suspected criminals last Thursday at a remote ranch in Luhuo, the daily said. Two of the three suspects who opened fire to resist arrest were killed while the other one was caught. Two of Pu’s colleagues were wounded, it said.
Police recovered three guns, 40 bullets and a handful of explosives after the gun battle, the paper had earlier reported. “Pu was brave and fearless in the fierce fight against the separatists. His sacrifice demonstrates his loyalty to the state and his love of the people,” Zhang Guanghua, deputy head of public security department of Sichuan, said.
He called on the prefecture’s police to learn from Pu to decisively fight against “separatists”, to take the lead in these crucial times and to safeguard the political stability and ethnic unity. He also read out an order to honour Pu with the title of “Excellent Communist Party Member” at the memorial service. (PTI)