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Reports: Tibetan Teenager Sets Himself on Fire


Tibetan sources say there has been another self-immolation in protest of government policies in Tibetan areas of China.

The latest incident involved an 18-year-old boy who died after setting himself on fire Monday. A spokesman at a Tibetan monastery in northern India told VOA Tibetan Service the boy, identified as Dorjee, set fire to himself in Ngaba town in China's southwestern Sichuan province.

He says the teenager marched while engulfed in flames from a bridge to a local Chinese office. He says Dorjee died at the scene.

Chinese authorities have not commented on the report.

Over the weekend, two Tibetan women set themselves on fire, including a mother of four and a 19-year-old.

At least 25 Tibetans have self-immolated since March of last year to protest the Chinese government's repression of Tibet's culture and religion.

Officials in Beijing have condemned self-immolations as a form of terrorism. They have accused Tibet's exiled leader the Dalai Lama of supporting them.

The Dalai Lama says he is only fighting for Tibet's cultural autonomy. He has not supported the self-immolations, but he has not condemned them either.

Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.

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