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Monk sets himself on fire in Tibet

Reuters

A file photo of Chinese armed forces arriving to stop Tibetan protesters in Amdo Ngaba on 16 March 2008. A Tibetan monk from Ngaba set himself on fire in protest on 27 February 2009, during a prayer festival, carrying a Tibetan flag with a picture of the Dalai Lama.File photo/TCHRD/Tibet

A Tibetan monk set himself on fire in protest Friday during a prayer festival in a part of western China that erupted in deadly riots a year ago, an activist group said.

The monk started the blaze after walking out of a monastery in Ngaba county, an ethnic Tibetan area in Sichuan province, carrying a Tibetan flag with a picture of exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, said Matt Whitticase, spokesman for the Free Tibet Campaign.

The monk was surrounded by armed police, three gun shots were heard and he was carried away in a van after falling to the ground, Whitticase said, citing unidentified sources. It was not known whether the monk was dead or alive, he added.

Reuters reached three people by phone in the town outside the Kirti monastery, where the monk had been based, but was unable to obtain confirmation of the protest.

“This is the first incident that I am aware of a Tibetan self-immolating since the late 1990s,” Whitticase said. “It is extremely rare.”

Tibetans marked their New Year this week and the Kirti monastery, which had been a center of pro-independence demonstrations last March before a crackdown, was observing the Monlam prayer festival Friday, Whitticase said.

Next month also marks the 50th anniversary of the exile of the Dalai Lama, following a failed insurrection against China, and there is intense security across Tibet itself and many neighbouring areas with ethnic Tibetans.

Copyright © 2009 Reuters

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