Delhi/Dharamsala:
A self-immolation bid by two monks in Sichuan province's Aba prefecture in southwest China - against the communist government - has sparked off protests by Tibetans in India. In the national capital Delhi, Tibetan exiles protested outside the Chinese embassy and refused to move, with the result that the police had to be called in to physically remove them. The protesters were then bundled into buses.
There were similar protests in Dharmsala - the seat of the Tibetan government in exile. Thupten Samphal, official spokesperson of the Tibetan government in exile, said the monks extreme step was a bid to show the world ''the degree of unhappiness Chinese rule imposes on Tibet.''
China's news agency, Xinhua confirmed that two young Tibetan men set themselves on fire in Aba prefecture on Friday. It however cited an Aba county spokesman as saying that the non-practising monks were rescued and were being treated at a local hospital for non-life-threatening injuries. However, the Free Tibet website reported that the locals there believed one of the monks has died at the scene.
Commenting on why the monks took this extreme step, Thupten Samphal, official spokesperson of the Tibetan government-in-exile in Dharmsala, said: ''These monks, they hope to show to the world the degree of unhappiness Chinese rule imposes on Tibet. A rule which also undermines the Tibetan way of life and Tibetan identity."
Free Tibet identified the men as 19-year-old Choepel and 18-year-old Khayang. Other sources called them Thongan and Tenzin, respectively, as Tibetans often have several names.