02/08/2013, 00.00
TIBET - CHINA
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Qinghai, 13 years in prison for a self-immolation that never happened

Beijing’s crack down on the Tibetan population continues: after 70 arrests "in relation to suicide," a court sentences a man for pushing a monk to suicide. Even if the suicide never occurred. The communist regime warns: "This will be the fate of all culprits."

Beijing (AsiaNews) - The People's court of the northwestern province of Qinghai this morning sentenced to 13 years in prison a Tibetan accused of having "incited" a Buddhist Monk to set themselves on fire against Communist rule and in favor of the return of the Dalai Lama in Tibet. The man, identified as Phagpa, was found guilty of "murder" even if the monk in question did not commit suicide.

This is the second conviction for murder issued by a Chinese court against the alleged "instigators" of the self-immolations in Tibet in the last month, the courts have in fact announced to the public that "this will be a charge for all found guilty." To date  99 Tibetans have set themselves on fire in China (since 2009) to protest against Beijing and its repressive policy towards the culture and religion of Tibet. According to the Tibetan government in exile, 83 of them have died.

To try to stop this extreme form of protest, the Communist government has chosen an iron fist: again in Qinghai, Chinese police arrested 70 people "in relation to a series of suicides." According to Xinhua, citing a "police investigation", the "Dalai clique piloted suicide for their own perverse purposes ". Both the Tibetan government in exile and the Buddhist religious leaders have repeatedly asked the Tibetans to "always preserve life."

According to some police officers "many of the suicide victims had personal problems" and Xinhua cited the case of a 26 year old woman - Kyihe Monky - who "had divorced her husband a few months before she committed suicide because he had many sexual relations with other men" .

Several Tibetan sources instead connect the increase in suicides to the increasingly repressive policies of the regime, which currently prevents minors from entering Buddhist temples, prohibits the teaching of the Tibetan language and traditional culture and gives the population of Han better employment and advantages than the Tibetans themselves.

 

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