2 Tibetans tried in China for inciting immolations

BEIJING (dpa) – Two Tibetans were prosecuted on charges of inciting eight people to self-immolate, state media announced Saturday but did not report any verdict.

Lorang Konchok, a 40-year-old monk at Kirti monastery in Sichuan province, and his 31-year-old nephew Lorang Tsering were accused of intentional homicide, according to a court statement in the Aba Tibetan-Qiang autonomous prefecture.

They had acted “on the instructions of the Dalai Lama and his followers”, the Xinhua news agency reported last month.

Three of the eight protesters had died, Xinhua said.

Ninety-eight people including monks and nuns have set themselves on fire since 2009 to protest Beijing’s rule over the Himalayan region, according to exile sources.

The trial appeared part of a campaign announced in December by state media to prosecute Tibetans who aided self-immolations.

Seven people were arrested earlier this month on charges of persuading a Tibetan villager to sacrifice himself.

A police investigation found the self-immolation by a 26-year-old in Gansu province’s Hezuo city to be “masterminded by key members of the ‘Tibetan Youth Congress’ of the overseas Dalai clique”, Xinhua reported.