Activist who burned himself alive left letter, asking world to ‘stand up for Tibet’

NEW DELHI : Tibetan activists say the exile who burned himself alive on the eve of a visit to India by China’s president has left behind a letter urging the world to “stand up for Tibet.”

Jamphel Yeshi, 27, wrote in the letter: If “you have control over your life, I think the day has come to sacrifice your life.” It was translated on the activist website Burning Tibet.

Yeshi lit himself on fire during an anti-China protest Monday and died of his burns Wednesday.

Police have taken hundreds of Tibetans into custody and sealed off New Delhi’s Tibetan neighborhoods, fearing embarrassing protests during the visit by China’s President Hu Jintao.

Hu is in New Delhi for the BRICS summit with India, Russia, Brazil and South Africa.