Tibetans protest against China’s shift in blame of self-immolation protest

Tibetan activists in Dharamshala stages a protest on “China’s victimization” of family members of self-immolators, March 21, 2013. DHARAMSHALA, March 21: As a response to continuing attempts by Chinese authorities to blame and impose heavy punishment on the family members of the self-immolators, the Tibetans in Dharamshala today staged a protest on “China’s victimization” of family members of self-immolators. The protesters paraded Xi Jinping’s bigheaded oaf holding a million Yuan in Mcleod Ganj and displayed placards saying Accept the Lie or Die! Two option: Either Accept the Bribe or Face the Punishment! I Will Never Accept the Lie! etc. The protest was jointly organized by regional chapters of Tibetan Youth Congress and Tibetan Women’s Association and Students For a Free Tibet, India. “The continuous self-immolations by Tibetans inside Tibet is one of the strongest political statements that highlights the height of oppression under which Tibetans have been suffering for a long time,” said Dorjee Tseten, National Director of Students for a Free Tibet. “Chinese government’s attempt to conceal the reality by deploying heavy military and punishing innocent Tibetans or offering bribe will only further deteriorate the situation. Tibetans will not stop resisting until and unless China addresses the real issue of the Tibetan people.” On 13 March, Kunchok Wangmo, 31, set herself on fire protesting China’s rule over her homeland around midnight in the Dzoge region of Ngaba, Northeastern Tibet. She died from injuries. Following her self-immolation protest, the local Chinese authorities arrested Wangmo’s husband Dolma Kyab when he refused to comply with their orders to declare internal family feuds as the reason for her self-immolation. According to China’s state news agency Xinhua, Dolma Kyab allegedly choked his wife to death after a quarrel and then transferred her body to the residential community where it was set alight on 12 March. Currently, Kyab’s condition and whereabouts of Kyab are not known. Similarly, in November last year, by Chinese security personnel secretly detained the husband of self-immolator, Dolkar Tso, when he refused to accept bribes offered by local authorities to state that his wife set herself on fire due to to family disputes and not in protest against China’s rule.