The self-immolations in Tibet will go on as long as China persists with its "virtual martial law", an exiled religious leader warned on Wednesday .
Kyabje Kirti Rinpoche, abbot of the Kirti monasteries, the centre of the conflict, said at least 11 monks, nuns and laymen had set themselves on fire in the district because, he said, they were driven to desperation by restrictions on their religion and freedom of movement.
"Wherever there is repression, there will be resistance," the 70-year-old told journalists via a phone conference. "They find they have no choice but to express their opposition to Chinese rule by an extreme form of non-violence. They have not harmed a single Chinese."
Until two years ago, when a monk set fire to himself in Kirti monastery in Aba county, an area of Sichuan province that exile groups claim as part of greater Tibet, the practice was unknown among clerics.But after a clampdown provoked by a second case this March there has been a series of immolations, mostly in Kirti, but also two other monasteries. Five resulted in death. Kyabje Kirti Rinpoche said they had all acted of their own accord.
He denied the government–in-exile gave orders, but declined to advise others not to follow suit. "If the Chinese government doesn't change its policies, then Tibetans must make their own choice. We don't have the right to tell them what to do and what not to do," he said. The abbot fled Tibet in 1959, as did the Dalai Lama, and has since been in the exile capital, Dharamsala, in India. He visited both China and Tibet in the 1980s, and he says he maintains underground channels with the monastery. Last week he visited the United States and spoke in Washington.
Monks face "patriotic re-education", he said. Since March between 300 and 800 Chinese officials have been in the monastery compound, and hundreds of monks had been taken away. Many are missing; some have been tortured. Those remaining monks have been put into 55 groups for "patriotic re-education", subjected to frequent random searches, and put under close circuit TV and watchtowers. "At this point, every monk in Kirti lives in a state of terror," said the abbot. "This is a repression that is taking place all over Tibet."
Officials in Aba said they are unaware of a clampdown. The Chinese government says Tibetans are free to practise their beliefs, accusing the Dalai Lama of "terrorism in disguise" because he led prayers for those who set fire to themselves.
In August a court jailed three monks to over the death in March of a monk, Rigzin Phuntsog, who set fire to himself. They were convicted of denying him medical treatment by hiding him; exile groups claim monks intervened because officers were beating him, denied by state media, and there was a confrontation with armed police. The claims of both are difficult to verify independently; journalists have been repeatedly turned away.
The exile community appears divided. Like the Kirti abbot¬, the Dalai Lama accused China of "cultural genocide". However, the Karmapa Lama has urged people to "preserve their lives and find other, constructive ways to work for the cause of Tibet"; but he praised the immolators' courage, and said the Chinese government was to blame.