Second Tibetan Monk Burns Himself to Death in Protest

Ashwini Bhatia/Associated Press

In Dharmsala, India, on Monday, a Tibetan at a vigil held a portrait of the monk Tsewang Norbu.

By RICK GLADSTONE  

A Tibetan Buddhist monk protesting Chinese policies immolated himself publicly in a Tibetan area of Sichuan Province in southwest China on Monday, an outside advocacy group reported. It was the second such act in the area in the past five months and appeared to reflect resistance to increased Chinese repression of loyalty to Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.

The monk was heard calling, “We Tibetan people want freedom,” “Long live the Dalai Lama” and “Let the Dalai Lama return to Tibet,” after he drank gasoline, doused himself with it and set himself alight on a bridge in the center of Daofu, a town in Ganzi County in Sichuan, according to the advocacy group Free Tibet. The group is based in London, but has a network of contacts in Tibet and Tibetan-populated areas elsewhere in China.
Xinhua, China’s official news agency, reported the death of a monk in Daofu, but did not provide details.

Ganzi, known in Tibetan as Kardze, is overwhelmingly populated by ethnic Tibetans. It has been an area of chronic tensions for the Chinese authorities, most related to the country’s Han ethnic majority.

China’s government regards the vast Himalayan region of Tibet as an integral part of China and is sensitive to expressions of support for the Dalai Lama, who fled into exile in 1959 and who has accused China of stifling Tibetan culture. The Chinese consider the Dalai Lama a subversive advocate of Tibetan independence, although he has said he only wants greater autonomy for Tibet.

Stephanie Brigden, the director of Free Tibet, identified the monk who killed himself as Tsewang Norbu, 29. She said he was protesting what she described as the harsh treatment of Tibetans following the March 16 immolation by a monk from the Kirti monastery in Aba, or Ngaba in Tibetan, in the same region of Sichuan. She said the repression worsened further when Tibetans in Daofu and elsewhere defied a government ban on celebrating the Dalai Lama’s 76th birthday on July 6.

“We’ve basically seen an escalation in the clamping down,” she said in a telephone interview. “It is not just limited to this area.”

In a news release, Ms. Brigden said her group had “grave concerns” about what could happen in Daofu in the aftermath of the monk’s immolation, and at his monastery, Nyitso. She said that telephone and Internet access had been cut and that the group had “received reports that the army has surrounded the monastery.”

The resilient support for the Dalai Lama among China’s five million Tibetans has taken on increased significance with time. The Dalai Lama has said he may choose his own successor, deviating from the practice in which senior lamas identify each Dalai Lama’s reincarnation after his death. In response, Chinese authorities in Beijing have said they have the authority to name the next Dalai Lama. They have been seeking to promote their own handpicked successor, the Panchen Lama, second only to the Dalai Lama in the Tibetan Buddhist hierarchy.

The so-called Chinese Panchen Lama, who has spent most of his life in Beijing, went on a politically significant trip last week to a town that is home to a cherished monastery in a Tibetan-populated area of Gansu Province, where he was expected to study and meditate for weeks. Experts on Tibet said the trip appeared to have been part of the Chinese government’s attempt to give the Panchen Lama more legitimacy among monks and other Tibetans by broadening his exposure outside the capital.


Src  : New york times

Fighting breaks out between government and Shan troops

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) - Fighting broke out at the weekend between Burmese government troops and two battalions of Shan State Army-North (SSA-N), based in Kyethi Township in Shan State.

Both sides suffered heavy casualties, according to SSA-N sources.

Shan soldiers celebrate Shan State National Day in this file photo. Photo: Mizzima

In the six-hour fight, started at 2 p.m. on Saturday, both sides used both heavy and light weapons, according to Major Sai Hla of the SSA-N. One government soldier was killed and eight were injured. Six Shan soldiers are receiving medical treatment for their injuries, he said. 

The fighting took place near Wan Phui Village, seven miles north east of Kyethi.

“They [the government troops] also carried away their soldiers who were injured. They withdrew [from the battle zone] because the two sides were evenly matched. We also withdrew,” Major Sai Hla told Mizzima.

At around 9 a.m. on Sunday, Burmese government’s Infantry No. 503 fired heavy weapons into the jungle where SSA-N troops were camped, but the Shan troops had already moved, according to the SSA-N.

On August 11, Burmese government’s Infantry No. 35 led by Major Myo Saw Maung under North East Command fired heavy weapons into Wansant Village in Mong Yai, believing there were people linked with Shan armed groups in the area, according to Major Sai Hla.

Because of the attack, three primary students and six adults were injured, he said. The village head’s house and the village secretary’s house were burned in the attack. He claimed more fighting would take place in the areas controlled by SSA-N because the Burmese government were deploying more weapons and provided more food to its troops in nearby areas.

In a joint statement released on August 10 by the Thailand-based Shan Women’s Action Network (SWAN) and Shan Human Rights Foundation (SHRF), more than 31,700 people from villages in nine townships in Northern Shan State, namely Mong Hsu, Mong Yai, Kyethi, Tang Yang, Hsipaw, Kyaukme, Lashio, Namhsan and Nankhan, had fled into the jungle near their villages because of fighting between SSA-N and Burmese government troops.

SSA-N said that some of the war refugees hiding in the jungle had returned to the nearby villages at Wanhai headquarters, but a doctor from Tang Yang Township Hospital told Mizzima that it seemed only a very limited number of war refugees could go back to their villages because of the instability.

Similarly, fighting between the Burmese government troops and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) broke out in Kachin State on August 14. Government’s Infantry No. 37 under Northern Command and KIA’s Battalion No. 18 under Brigade No. 5 fought near Nansangyang Village in Waimaw Township, according to La Nang, spokesman of Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), the political wing of KIA.

Both sides used both heavy and light weapons in the one hour of fighting and one government soldier was killed, said La Nang. The KIA did not suffer any casualties. Despite meetings between government officials and the KIO on August 1 and 2, a cease-fire agreement had not been reached, he said. 

Giving this situation and with no cease-fire agreement, shooting can take place in these circumstances, La Nang told Mizzima.

He said there was very little possibility of making peace given the government response.

“According to government’s statements and press conferences, there is just a faint possibility for holding dialogue. If dialogue cannot be held, the fighting will become more intense. If the government has good will and is willing to hold political dialogue, negotiations could be successful,” La Nang said.



Src  : Mizzima

Nearly 70 killed in attacks across Iraq

 BAGHDAD--Nearly 70 people were killed and dozens more were wounded Monday in a string of violent attacks around Iraq, one of the deadliest days in the country so far this year, police and government officials said.
In the worst incident, two bombs exploded in a busy jewelry market in the city center of Kut, killing at least 34 and injuring more than 50, officials said.

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Car bombs also detonated in the northern city of Kirkuk and the pricey Mansour district of Baghdad. Elsewhere, AK-47 wielding assailants targeted leaders in Diyala Province northeast of Baghdad.
The attacks came after a period of relative quiet in the country, which had descended as the Muslim holy month of Ramadan began in early August.
Lt. Col. Hachem Neama Abbas, an Iraqi army commander in Baghdad, said the military had been bracing for a new round of violence after the calm. The attacks, he said, are proof that insurgents still posed a threat to the country’s stability. They also raise questions about the Iraqi government’s ability to maintain security as American troops prepare to leave the country by December.
“This wave of explosions and attacks is evidence that al-Qaeda is still effective,” Abbas said.
Iraq is debating whether or not to ask a small contingent of U.S. forces to stay past the deadline, but no official request has been made yet, U.S. officials have said.
The day’s worst violence happened in Kut, a large city in central Iraq about 150 miles from Baghdad. Insurgents detonated a bomb at about 8:30 a.m. in a crowded area near a jewelry market, according to Dhiaa Al Deen Al Aabudi, the city’s health director. About 10 minutes later, a car bomb detonated in the same place. In all 34 people were killed and about 70 injured, some critically.
In Diyala province, northeast of Baghdad, 13 people, including four Iraqi army officers, were killed in a string of car bombs, explosives and shootings. A police official there said he believed the commanders of the group Sons of Iraq were targeted by insurgents.
Elsewhere, at least two were killed in a series of car bombings in Baghdad, and eight died in attacks on police facilities in Najaf and Karbala. Nine people died in Tikrit after two suicide bombings there, including one by a man dressed in a traffic police uniform who blew himself up at the main gate of the city’s counter-terrorism facility.
In Kirkuk, where a car bomb and an motorcycle rigged with explosives exploded outside a church Monday, killing one, the provincial governor, Najmaldin Karim, called on American troops to stay in the country past the deadline.
Special correspondents Asaad Majeed in Baghdad, Sa’ad Sarhan in Najaf, Othman Almukhtar in Anbar province and Hassan Alshimmari in Diyala province contributed to this report.

Src  : Washingtonpost