Tibetans set themselves on fire

A Tibetan man died after he and another man set themselves on fire in southwestern China, state media said yesterday, taking the total number of similar acts to 14 in the restive region in less than a year.
The incidents happened Friday near the Kirti monastery in Sichuan province’s Aba county – the scene of a sporadic bouts of unrest since a young monk named Phuntsog self-immolated last March – the official Xinhua news agency said.
The latest violent acts involved two former monks at Kirti, Xinhua said. An 18-year-old died in a hotel room after setting himself on fire while another man aged 22 was being treated in hospital after setting himself ablaze.
The London-based Free Tibet campaign group, citing eyewitness accounts, said the 22-year-old had called for the return of the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader, as he set himself on fire.
The flames were extinguished and he was taken away to an undisclosed location, they said.
A woman at the local hospital declined to comment on the condition of the survivor when contacted by AFP yesterday. Calls to the county government and police also went unanswered.
A spokesman for the local government told Xinhua that the man in hospital had confessed that the two men conspired to set themselves on fire.
An investigation also found that the men had been involved in a number of thefts, including the “case of the Kirti monastery Buddha statue burglary”, Xinhua said.