Rights Group and Governments Urge China to Address Tibetan Grievances as Self-immolation Toll Rises to 90

CTA: Kunchok Kyab, a 29-year-old Tibetan man, set himself on fire Friday at Zoegey, in Ngaba in north-eastern Tibet, taking the self-immolation toll to 90.

Minutes after his immolation, Chinese security officers arrived and took his body to the regional police headquarters, eyewitnesses said. He died on 1 December 2012.

With the escalating number of self-immolations in Tibet, Human Rights Watch has called on governments committed to promoting human rights to jointly urge the Chinese government to address Tibetan grievances.

“They should consider forming a contact group or issuing a joint statement on long-standing human rights problems in Tibet. Coordinated, international expressions of concern are essential to get Beijing to substantively address the issues being raised by Tibetans,” it said in a statement on Thursday.

The US government on Friday reiterated that it will continue to urge the Chinese Government to address policies in Tibetan areas that have created tensions and that threaten the distinct religious, cultural, and linguistic identity of the Tibetan people.

“We remain very concerned about rising tensions that result from counter-productive policies, including those that limit freedom of religion, freedom of expression, freedom of assembly and association in Tibet, and we are disturbed by reports of violence between police and student protesters that left 20 students injured after a protest earlier this week by approximately a thousand Tibetan medical students in Qinghai province against a government-issued booklet which derided the Tibetan language, the Dalai Lama, and self-immolators,” Victoria Nuland, State Department spokesperson said.

Nuland said Assistant Secretary Mike Posner met with relatives of Tibetans who had recently self-immolated in the Tibetan area. He expressed our deepest condolences and our grave concern for the
spiralling violence and harsh crackdown in Tibetan areas as well as grief with regard to the self-immolations, she added.