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Chinese villagers told to flatten tombs: reports
by Staff Writers
Beijing (AFP) Feb 21, 2013


Tibetan teens in rare double immolation: reports
Beijing (AFP) Feb 21, 2013 - Two Tibetan teenagers died after they set fire to themselves in protest at Chinese rule, reports and Western rights groups said, in a rare instance of a double self-immolation in the restive region.

The former primary school classmates were named as 18-year-old Sonam Dargye and a 17-year-old identified by US-based Radio Free Asia (RFA) only as Rinchen.

They died Tuesday in Aba prefecture, a Tibetan area of Sichuan province in southwestern China, RFA said, where a wave of the gruesome acts have occurred.

Stephanie Brigden, head of London-based campaign group Free Tibet, which also reported the deaths, said: "Tibet's children... face all the challenges of life under oppression, and are often full participants in the struggle to resist it."

The self-immolations followed the reported death Sunday of 49-yaer-old Namlha Tsering in the middle of a busy street in Xiahe county in the northwestern province of Gansu, RFA added.

On its website it showed a photograph of a man purported to be Namlha Tsering engulfed in flames, sitting in the road with his legs crossed as cars passed by.

Free Tibet said the man, who was also known as Hoba, left a wife and four sons.

More than 100 people have set themselves on fire in protest at China's rule since 2009, at least 85 of whom have died, according to reports.

The Washington-based International Campaign for Tibet said at least 22 of those who have set themselves alight were aged 18 or under, including Tuesday's double immolation.

Many Tibetans in China accuse the government of religious repression and eroding their culture, as the country's majority Han ethnic group increasingly moves into historically Tibetan areas.

Beijing rejects criticism of its rule, saying Tibetans enjoy religious freedom and pointing to huge ongoing investment it says has brought modernisation and a better standard of living to Tibet.

Authorities have sought to crack down on the protests by arresting those it accuses of inciting them and prosecuting them for murder, and have embarked on a major publicity drive on the issue in recent weeks.

Beijing accuses the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, and his "clique" of inciting such acts to push a separatist agenda. But the Dalai Lama says he is seeking greater autonomy rather than Tibetan independence.

The Nobel laureate fled his homeland in 1959 after a failed uprising, and has since based himself in the Indian hill town of Dharamshala.

Villagers in central China who secretly rebuilt tombs after they were flattened by officials to provide more farmland are being forced to pull them down again, domestic media reported Thursday.

Authorities caused uproar last year in Henan province by demolishing two million tombs, and residents re-erected hundreds of thousands of them over the Lunar New Year holiday that ended last week, the Southern Metropolis Daily said.

Respect for ancestors is a deeply ingrained aspect of Chinese culture, with a major annual festival dedicated to maintaining tombs, and officials halted the "flatten graves to return farmland" policy in November in the wake of the outcry.

But a report in the Henan Daily newspaper -- the Communist Party mouthpiece for the province -- said residents had "misunderstood" new rules on burials, wrongly believing that authorities would not act to remove rebuilt tombs.

A local official quoted in the Southern Metropolis Daily said: "The action of flattening the tombs for the second time is proceeding. This started on February 14 and is nearing completion."

The newspaper quoted online forum users saying officials were threatening residents with fines if they did not remove the rebuilt tombs.

China's government encourages cremation, citing a shortage of land for burials, but many in the countryside continue to construct tombs due to traditional beliefs.

An official in Zhoukou city, which has been at the centre of the tomb-clearing policy, told AFP Thursday he was unable to confirm whether rebuilt tombs were being removed.

Chinese anger over Cultural Revolution trial
Beijing (AFP) Feb 21, 2013 - China's Internet users cried foul Thursday over the trial of an elderly man for an alleged murder decades ago during the political and social upheaval of the Cultural Revolution under Mao Zedong.

China has never publicly estimated how many died in the decade-long period, during which people turned on their neighbours. Half a million died in 1967 alone, according to British historian Roderick MacFarquhar.

"The biggest murderer in the Cultural Revolution has no responsibility, while a common murderer is held accountable decades later," attorney Liu Xiaoyuan wrote on his Twitter-like weibo microblog.

The state-run China News Service reported Wednesday that a man in his eighties had gone on trial in the eastern province of Zhejiang this week for the 1967 murder of a doctor suspected of being a spy.

The defendant, surnamed Qiu, was accused of strangling his victim with a rope before cutting off his legs and burying him.

Qiu was a member of "an armed group" during the decade of upheaval known as the Cultural Revolution, the report said, adding that he was arrested last July.

Another weibo user called Qiu a "pawn", adding: "You don't dare punish" people who should be held accountable such as senior officials.

A woman surnamed Zheng at the People's Court in the Zhejiang city of Ruian, told AFP Thursday that the trial had been completed and a verdict could come in the next few days.

"There is a high chance we will give him a suspended sentence," she said, citing the defendant's advanced age.

The Cultural Revolution was launched in 1966 by Mao, who called on ordinary citizens to struggle against the privileged, resulting in attacks on government officials, intellectuals and other groups.

Memories of the episode remain raw in China, and a full historical accounting has never been released by the country's communist authorities.

"There are so many people who died in the Cultural Revolution," wrote another Internet user Wednesday. "Wasn't that stirred up by a certain party?"

"What are you doing?", the user continued. "Intend to show how efficient your work is? Or how impartial you are when you enforce the law? It is just a show!"

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SINO DAILY
US slams 'horrific' toll of Tibet self-immolations
Washington (AFP) Feb 15, 2013
The United States on Friday denounced the "horrific" toll as the number of Tibetans who have set themselves on fire to protest Chinese rule rose to 101. Washington had noted "the horrific figures" and was "deeply concerned by the reports that these immolations are continuing," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told journalists. "We call on those who are immolating, or those wh ... read more


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