Tibetan self-immolations: China authorities offer rewards to stop protests

Authorities in Tibetan-inhabited areas of northwestern China are offering rewards of nearly $8,000 for information about people planning to set themselves on fire.

Radio Free Asia said a notice posted in Gannan prefecture in Gansu province, where three people have set fire to themselves since Saturday, asked residents to help police prevent further self-immolations.

Police are offering 50,000 yuan, or nearly $8,000, for information on “the sources of scheming, planning and instigating such acts,” RFA reported, citing the notice that was dated October 21.

Anyone with credible information about the most recent protests will receive about $3,000, the Voice of America reported.

“Self-immolations have seriously affected social harmony and the working order of people’s daily lives,” the notice said.

“The Tibetan people should voluntarily fight against such illegal acts.”

Nearly 60 ethnic Tibetans, many of them monks and nuns, have set fire to themselves since February 2009 to protest against Chinese rule in Tibetan-inhabited regions. Beijing has accused the Dalai Lama of instigating the burnings.

In the past five days alone, three Tibetans have self-immolated in Gansu province. 

Tibetan rights groups said Tuesday that a Tibetan farmer died after setting himself on fire near the famed Labrang monastery, the second self-immolation in the area in two days.

Another Tibetan burned himself to death at a nearby monastery on Saturday.

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