Unarmed Protesting Tibetan Monk Sets Self On Fire; Chinese Police Douses Fire By Shooting Him (dead?)

[Invisible Sky Magician]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...d=sec-religion

BEIJING, Feb. 27 -- A young Tibetan monk was shot by Chinese police after he set himself on fire Friday, the third day of the Tibetan New Year, at a market in Sichuan provinces Aba prefecture, Tibetan activist groups said, citing eyewitnesses.

Many Tibetans this year are avoiding celebrating the New Year or are instead using the 15-day holiday to commemorate those killed in deadly riots in Lhasa last March. Chinese authorities, determined to avoid a recurrence of the violence, have sharply increased security patrols, detentions and so-called reeducation campaigns. They are especially nervous about March 10, the 50th anniversary of the 1959 Tibetan uprising, which Chinese troops forcibly suppressed shortly before the Dalai Lama fled into exile and Beijing imposed its own government in Tibet.

Witnesses told the activist groups that the monks protest came shortly after he and about 1,000 other monks were refused entry to the main prayer hall at the Kirti Monastery in Aba because local authorities had forbidden observation of Monlam, a traditional prayer festival held after Losar, as the New Year is known. In defiance of the order, the monks sat down outside to begin their prayers about 1 p.m. while older monks pleaded with them to disperse, according to Students for a Free Tibet and the Washington-based International Campaign for Tibet.

The monks complied, but then a monk in his 20s named Tapey came out of the monastery, took out a homemade flag bearing a photograph of the Dalai Lama and at 1:40 p.m. walked to a nearby street market. He had doused himself with oil by the time he reached an intersection in the market, where he set himself on fire, the activist groups said.

Witnesses said police then fired three shots at Tapey. At the first shot, he fell, said Kate Saunders, a spokeswoman for the International Campaign for Tibet, and officials removed him from the scene.

Eyewitnesses said they believed he was dead, but his condition has not been confirmed.

Are there many foreign journalists or media in Tibet right now and how freely are they able to report news over there?

Regarding the topic, were the chinese police in the right by shooting an unarmed Tibetan Monk who protested by setting himself on fire?

I remember during the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, any foreign journalists were barred from entering.

I personally dont think restrictions on journalists are a good thing.

[boofhead]

Not really sure why you'd shoot dead a bloke on fire. Maybe to stop a spectacle or crowd magnet and whisk him away?

If they really wanted to him up they would have just put him out when he was still alive.

[Zephyrus]

Or just throw acid into his eyes for refusing to consort with them...:

[Plebeian]

He set himself on fire, so they shot him. I don't see why this is a big deal, he dies a little bit quicker with a bullet to the head while still setting himself on fire.

[Boer]

My understanding was Tibet was still off limits to journalists, but as best as I can tell Aba (the city where this happened) is outside Tibet.

[bushbush]

tragic

[Zephyrus]

tragic

Hilarious!

Hey, better to get shot than die by burning.

[Erik]

Aba is in the Sichuan province, says so in the article.

But I don't think journalists have free access anywhere in China.

[bushbush]

Aba is in the Sichuan province, says so in the article.

tibet is sorta divided into tibet today, qinhai, and some other counties that belong to the surrounding provinces. Aba i think is one of those tibetan districts in sichuan

[Erik]

tibet is sorta divided into tibet today, qinhai, and some other counties that belong to the surrounding provinces. Aba i think is one of those tibetan districts in sichuan

Aba is in the Ngawa Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, which is located in but doesn't 'belong' to the Sichuan province.

This is what wiki has to say about "autonomous regions" in China:

In a similar fashion to the former Soviet Union's titular nations, a number of areas associated with one or more ethnic minorities are designated as autonomous within the People's Republic of China (PRC). These areas are recognized in the PRC's constitution and are nominally given a number of rights not accorded to other administrative divisions. In reality, however, autonomous regions are "political eunuchs."[citation needed] This is because their authority rests with the Constitution and the Law on Regional Autonomy, requiring leaders to seek prior approval from the National People's Congress (NPC) to pass legislation.[citation needed] This is not true for other provinces, which can pass legislation without such prior approval.[citation needed] For this reason, it has been contended that Autonomous regions are in fact "less autonomous."[1]

The PRC's autonomous regions may be found in the first (or top) to third levels of its national administrative divisions thus:

Level Type Chinese Pinyin Number*
province (1) Autonomous regions of China 自治区 zìzhìqū 5
prefecture (2) Autonomous prefectures of China 自治州 zìzhìzhōu 30
county (3) Autonomous counties of China 自治县 zìzhìxiàn 117
Autonomous banners of China 自治旗 zìzhìqí 3

(...)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autonomous_areas_of_China

Definitely not. But necessary if they're not indoctrinated to sympathize with your views.
China needs to learn from the Pentagon strategy of journalist embedding.

Indoctrinating journalists by embedding them works great during a (full out) war, when security issues pretty much forces journalists to go embedded.
But when things are (relatively) calm, this strategy falls apart.

What China thus needs to do, is to start a war...something they can definitely learn from the Pentagon.

[sephodwyrm]

I personally dont think restrictions on journalists are a good thing.

Definitely not. But necessary if they're not indoctrinated to sympathize with your views.
China needs to learn from the Pentagon strategy of journalist embedding.

[sephodwyrm]

But when things are (relatively) calm, this strategy falls apart.

I was wondering if this is always the case.
I can imagine the state media journalists join the rescue units in Sichuan after the earthquake to give a up close and personal view. The coverage, IMO, is pretty successful.

What China thus needs to do, is to start a war...something they can definitely learn from the Pentagon.

Against who? China has no power projection capability. She could not yet ascertain complete domination of the Taiwan Straits. I mean, if China CAN actually go to war, I'd be ROFL MAO (zedong).

[Erik]

Against who? China has no power projection capability. She could not yet ascertain complete domination of the Taiwan Straits. I mean, if China CAN actually go to war, I'd be ROFL MAO (zedong).

Mongolia perhaps?

They could claim they were hiding WMD's in their yaks.

[sephodwyrm]

They could claim they were hiding WMD's in their yaks.

Yak's don't give oil. And the butter has a strong odor that a southern Chinese like me can't really tolerate.

[Eien]

Well, you'd do that to a flamethrower who got set on fire right?, no one mentioned the intensity of the fire, if the maniac was actually doused in petrol, i don't think water will actually do anything to douse it >.>

[RollingWave]

The PRC has a domestic media policy called ㄏ合諧 (He-Xie, aka Harmony) that tend to stifle any negative reports from within, and foreign journalist are more limited there than in most countries. (most of these news are slipped out by tourist and bloggers in general) though the online communities in China tend to joke that the He-Xie policy as 河蟹 (river crabs, same pronunciation in Chinese) in reference to how crabs walk sideways. and that their main news channal's news is always in the "3 big catagory" 1.The leadership is really working hard 2.The people are all happy 3. the world outside of China is a mess.

As for the Tibetian issue, we been through this, if the Tibetians really feel strongly enough of the issue, then. from a realpolitik point of view, they need to bleed. either themself or the Chinese . hard , to the point where China actually have incentives to let it go.

[Invisible Sky Magician]

their main news channals news is always in the 3 big catagory 1.The leadership is really working hard 2.The people are all happy 3. the world outside of China is a mess.

im not surprised at 1 and 2, but 3 is pretty interesting.

One of their (the chinese) main criticizms of western media is that we stick our noses into other nations too much and we are too negative about everything. I guess the We Are Good, The Rest of the World Is Evil concept of reporting is working well for China too.

[boofhead]

I guess Chinese don't really warm to acts of self immolation

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[Dr. Croccer]

They could've shot him out of mercy for all we know.

[Juicemisbruk]

they probaly did'nt have anything to put the fire out with so they shot him to keep him from burning alive... or they could have been scared he would set fire to everything there... just to be fair to the chinese goverment...