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Tibetan protester succumbs to burns; hunger strike continues

Thupten Ngodup's death in the early hours of Wednesday, caused by the severe burns suffered by him during a self-immolation bid on Monday, has made the Tibetans determined to carry on the protest which began as an indefinite fast 51 days ago.

Ngodup, 60, set himself ablaze to protest against the police action to break the indefinite hunger strike by six Tibetans which started on March 10.

He was admitted to the Ram Manohar Lohia hospital with 90 per cent burns, and died shortly after midnight. After a post-mortem at the Lady Hardinge medical college, his body was taken in a procession of 16 vehicles to Majnu ka Tila where it was handed over to the Tibetan Youth Congress spearheading the hunger strike.

TYC spokesman C Wangchuk said about 2,500 Tibetans gathered to take part in the prayers and pay tribute to Ngodup.

Addressing the gathering, TYC president Tseten Norbu said, ''as refugees, we get food and shelter from others. But for the freedom of Tibet, we cannot bank on it and have to make some sacrifices.''

''We are all the more encouraged by the deed of this brave man,'' said Dolma, a representative of the Tibetan government-in-exile.

Meanwhile, all the six strikers of the first batch, admitted to hospital are improving. The youngest of them, Karma Sichoe, who was in intensive care, is said to be out of danger. ''They are expected to be discharged from the hospital in a day or two,'' Wangchuk said, adding that one of them, Yung Drung, was still refusing food though he was being given nutrients intravenously.

A group of thirty nuns who came from Dharamsala sat on a silent dharna near the tent where the second batch of five Tibetans are on hunger strike since Tuesday. A large framed photograph of Ngodup was kept on a table with 108 burning candles as part of a Tibetan ritual.

Ngodup's body will be taken to Dharmasala where the cremation is scheduled to take place on Thursday.

He died barely six hours after the Tibetan spiritual head, the Dalai Lama, visited him and the six hunger strikers in the hospital last evening.

The Chhatra Janata Dal and Yuva Janata Dal also staged a one-day dharna near the Tibetan tent in support of the hunger strikers and their demands which include resumption of debate in the United Nations on the Tibetan issue and appointment of a special UN envoy on Tibet.

UNI

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