Tibetan in India Dies Days After Setting Himself on Fire to Protest China

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Tibetan in India Dies Days After Setting Himself on Fire to Protest China

March 8, 2016;

The New York Times

By NIDA NAJARMARCH 4, 2016

NEW DELHI — A 16-year-old Tibetan student living in India has died three days after setting himself on fire to protest Chinese rule in Tibet, a hospital official said on Friday.

The student, Dorjee Tsering, had self-immolated on Monday in Dehradun, India, while shouting “Free Tibet,” according to an advocacy group based in London. He was rushed to New Delhi and treated at Safdarjung Hospital, where he died on Thursday night, said Poonam Dhanda, a spokeswoman for the hospital. Burns had covered 95 percent of his body, Ms. Dhanda said.

Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential candidate, held up a picture of Mr. Dorjee on Tuesday while in Minnesota speaking with the president of the Tibetan National Congress, an advocacy group.

Mr. Dorjee was the second Tibetan this week to die after self-immolation. On Monday, an 18-year-old Tibetan monk, Kalsang Wangdu, set himself afire in the Chinese province of Sichuan, the first such episode in a Tibetan area of China since August. Since 2009, more than 140 Tibetans have self-immolated in Tibetan regions of China to protest Beijing’s rule.