Central Asia
Tibet: self-immolations reach 114
A young monk burned himself to death in Gansu provinceāthe third Tibetan to torch himself and die in as many days, taking the total reported toll since 2009 to 114.
Tag: Central Asia
Central Asia
China: Han-Tibetan solidarity emerging
Human rights lawyer Xu Zhiyong, who defends Chinese peasants struggling to keep their lands, proclaims his support for the Tibetans and calls for Han solidarity with their cause.
Central Asia
Kazakhstan sentences opposition leader to prison
A court in Kazakhstan sentenced an outspoken political activist to seven-and-a-half years in jail for allegedly colluding with a fugitive billionaire to overthrow the government.
Central Asia
Tibetan writer self-immolates in TAR
A Tibetan poet, Gudrup, died after setting himself on fire in the Tibet Autonomous Region, leaving a blog post calling for Tibetans not “lose courage” in the struggle for freedom.
Central Asia
Central Asia opium wars escalate
Tajikistan sealed its border with Afghanistan after clashes with armed rebels left 48 deadāa re-escalation of conflict over control of the cross-border traffic in Afghan opium.
Central Asia
China: traditional herders protest “Five-Year Plan” to extinguish nomadic cultures
Plans by China’s government for the “resettlement” of the country’s last remaining nomads over the next five years have sparked protests in Inner Mongolia, with traditional Mongol herders accusing authorities of land-grabbing.
Central Asia
Xinjiang: kids wounded as police raid “illegal” Islamic school
Twelve children were injured in a police raid on an “illegal” Islamic school at Hotan, in China’s restive Xinjiang province. Authorities say school staff set off an explosive, but rights groups say the casualties were caused when police used tear gas.
Central Asia
Tibet: first self-immolations in Lhasa
Two young Tibetan men set fire to themselves outside one of Tibetās holiest shrines, the Jokhang Templeāmarking the first self-immolations in Lhasa, Tibetās historic capital. Chinese state media report that one of the young men died.
Central Asia
Kyrgyzstan: self-immolation signals growing unrest
An elderly man set himself on fire in Kyrgyzstan’s southern city of Osh, the scene of repeated rival protests between ethnic Kyrgyz and Uzbeks. Labor strikes and local protests have meanwhile shut down the country’s giant Kumtor gold mine.
Central Asia
Geography wars in coverage of Tibetan self-immolations
Contradictory accounts of the Tibetan self-immolationsānow numbering over 35āreveal rival conceptions of Tibet’s borders by the Chinese state and the Dalai Lama’s exile government, with control of critical resources in the background.
Central Asia
Tibet: self-immolations continue āand spread to India
Two Tibetan monks set themselves on fire in Sichuan provinceābringing the total of protest self-immolations in little more than a year to over 30. Days earlier, a Tibetan exile self-immolated a protest in New Delhi.
Central Asia
Turkmenistan: new boss almost as wacky as old boss
Gurbanguli Berdymukhamedov was sworn in as Turkmenistan’s president, having won by a predictable 97%. His personalistic dictatorship mirrors that of his autocratic predecessor “Turkmenbashi”āand is the lynchpin of the planned trans-Afghan pipeline.