Tibetan protester dies after setting himself on fire in New Delhi

[News_Editor]

Tibetan protester dies after setting himself on fire in New Delhi

2012-03-29 08:08:41 GMT+7 (ICT)

NEW DELHI, INDIA (BNO NEWS) -- A Tibetan man died on early Wednesday morning after setting himself on fire earlier this week in New Delhi to protest against Chinese rule in Tibet, activists and officials said. He is the latest Tibetan to self-immolate in a series of similar protests.

Jamphel Yeshi, 27, from the Kham Tawu region in Tibet, set himself on fire on Monday afternoon in front of hundreds of Tibetans who had converged in New Delhi to protest against Chinese President Hu Jintao's visit to India. He suffered 98 percent burns to his body, and doctors had given him no chance of survival.

According to the Tibetan Youth Congress (TYC), Yeshi was pronounced dead at 7:30 a.m. local time on Wednesday. A senior doctor at New Delhi's Ram Manohar Lohia (RML) Hospital, where Yeshi had been taken to receive treatment, said the protester suffered a cardiac arrest related to the self-immolation

"Martyr Jamphel Yeshi's sacrifice will be written in golden letters in the annals of our freedom struggle," said TYC Vice President Dhondup Lhadar, who was by Yeshi's side when he passed away. "He will live on to inspire and encourage the future generations of Tibetans. The brilliant radiance of his fire will dispel the darkness of China's illegal occupation of Tibet and regenerate the spirit of Tibetan independence."

Yeshi had been living in the old camp of Majnu Ka Tila in Delhi for the past two years after escaping Tibet to India in 2006 to study at the Tibetan Transit School in Dharamsala, which has been the seat of the Tibetan Government-in-exile since a failed uprising against Chinese rule in Tibet in 1960.

Lhadar said the body of Yeshi, who had actively participated in many political activities in recent years, will be carried to the Tibetan Government-in-exile's headquarters in Dharamsala for a funeral. "Pawo Jamphel Yeshi’s self-immolation marks a milestone in our freedom struggle where Tibetans inside and outside of Tibet stand ever united in our fights against the Chinese occupying forces," he said.

Since March 2011, a total of 30 Tibetans have set themselves on fire as part of protests taking place in Tibet, leading to the arrests of hundreds of Tibetans by Chinese security forces. As a result of the unrest, Chinese authorities have stepped up security in the region.

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