China punishes Tibetans in self-immolation cases

BEIJING (AP) – Chinese courts convicted eight Tibetans over accusations they incited others to self-immolate in the first such prosecutions to become publicly known, showing Beijing’s resolve to stamp out the protests by criminalising both the protesters and their supporters.

The convictions Thursday, reported by the official Xinhua News agency, also appear aimed at shoring up Beijing’s claims that such protests against Chinese rule are instigated by outsiders with ulterior motives, rather than being homegrown demonstrations.

About 100 Tibetan monks, nuns and lay people have set themselves on fire since 2009, usually after calling for religious freedom and the return of their exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.

A court in Aba prefecture in the southwestern province of Sichuan sentenced Lorang Konchok, 40, to death with a two-year reprieve and gave his nephew Lorang Tsering, 31, a 10-year prison sentence for their roles in encouraging eight people to self-immolate last year, three of whom died from their

burns, Xinhua said. Both were charged with murder.

Suspended death sentences are usually commuted to life in prison. Calls to the court rang unanswered Thursday. In a separate report, Xinhua said a county court in Gannan prefecture in Gansu province sentenced six ethnic Tibetans to between three and 12 years in prison for their roles in the self-immolation of a local resident in October.

Four of them were convicted of murder after they obstructed police efforts to retrieve the body of a self-immolator, who was still alive when police put out flames but died without receiving timely medical treatment, Xinhua said. The other two were found guilty of public disturbance

for causing chaos at the scene, Xinhua

said.

Authorities initially responded to the self-immolations by flooding Tibetan areas with security forces to seal them off and prevent information from getting out. With those efforts doing little to stop or slow the protests, Beijing now appears to be seeking to weaken sympathy for them by portraying them as misguided and criminal.

At a regular daily briefing Thursday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said the Lorangs “pushed innocent people onto the road of self-immolations and the road of no return” to further what the government says is the Dalai Lama’s goal to split Tibet from China.