Indian police halt Tibetan's self-immolation bid
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A Tibetan exile set himself on fire outside the Chinese embassy in New Delhi on Friday before Indian police intervened, witnesses said, in the latest self-immolation protest against China.
The young protester poured liquid fuel on his body and lit himself before police overpowered him and put out the flames, which licked up his trousers and across his waist, an AFP photographer at the scene reported.
The man, who was on his own, had stepped off a public bus and shouted slogans during his protest before several policemen grabbed him and he fell to the ground.
He appeared to have suffered minor burns on his legs and was taken away in a police vehicle. A New Delhi police spokesman was unable to provide further details.
Since March there has been a series of self-immolations by Buddhist monks and nuns in southwest China in protests demanding religious freedom and the return of the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader.
At least five monks and two nuns have died, rights groups have said, with the most recent death being reported on Thursday when a nun, named Qiu Xiang and aged about 35, set fire to herself in China's Sichuan province.
China has accused the Dalai Lama, who fled his homeland for India in 1959, of instigating the self-immolations in a form of "terrorism in disguise."
The Dalai Lama has in the past condemned self-immolations, which many Buddhists believe are contrary to their faith, but has kept a low profile over the recent wave of protests.
Many Tibetans in China are angry about what they see as growing domination by the country's majority Han ethnic group.
Most of the suicide attempts have taken place around the Kirti monastery in Sichuan, which has become a flashpoint for the mounting anger at the erosion of Tibetan culture.
The Dalai Lama, who fled Tibet following a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959, founded a government in exile in the northern Indian town of Dharamshala after being offered refuge there.
He remains revered in China's Tibetan areas, and by a large international following, but is vilified as a "separatist" by China's communist authorities.
The Dalai Lama has long denied he is seeking an independent Tibet, saying he only desires greater autonomy for his homeland under Chinese rule.
Tibet's prime minister-in-exile has urged the United States to step up pressure on China after the self-immolation protests.
Lobsang Sangay, who was elected to the government-in-exile's new post as the Dalai Lama tries to ease out of his political role, met lawmakers in Washington on Thursday.
"I think it's high time that the international community realises the gravity and the urgency of the situation," he said.
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