(TibetanReview.net, Dec 26, 2014) – The Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile on Dec 24 expressed condolences for and solidarity with Sangye Khar, 34, Tsephe Kyi, 19, and Ven Kelsang Yeshi, 32, who had carried out protest self-immolations in Chinese ruled Tibet over the past eight days. It repeated its call on China to investigate the real causes of the self-immolation protests and to address the grievances of the Tibetan people.
The exile parliament statement criticized China for resorting to intimidation to clampdown on the Tibetan people, including by threatening the families of the self-immolators, depriving them of basic necessities and accusing them of murder.
The exile Tibetan administration’s position is that the self-immolations are a desperate last recourse by Tibetans over China’s gross human rights violations, and its policies of cultural and ethnic assimilation and environmentally destructive exploitation of the territory’s resources.
On the other hand, China has maintained in the past that the self-immolations in Tibet had nothing to do with its policies, contending that they were either caused by personal difficulties, insanity, and the like, or as a result of instigation and encouragement by what it calls the ‘Dalai clique’. Nevertheless, it has imposed both individual and collective punishments on families, villages, and monasteries to intimidate Tibetans from resorting to such form of protest.