Gudrup, a writer and poet who self immolated in in Dreru, Tibet – part of the area China has designated the Tibet Autonomous Region, October 4, 2012.
October 04, 2012
Sources tell VOA’s Tibetan Service a 43-year-old poet and blogger named Gudrup engulfed himself in flames Thursday in Dreru, Tibet – part of the area China has designated the Tibet Autonomous Region.
Witnesses said Gudrup was badly burned when he was brought to a hospital. A doctor later told them Gudrup had died, but the authorities so far are refusing to release his body to his family.
This past March, Gudrup blogged about the anti-China protests that had gripped southwestern China and Tibet, writing on March 14 “Tibetans who refuse to denounce His Holiness the Dalai Lama or accept China’s rule on Tibet are secretly killed or made to disappear.”
In the same post, Gudrup called on fellow Tibetans to “win the battle through truth, by shooting arrows upon our lives.”
He also warned Tibetans “are sharpening our nonviolent movement… declaring the reality of Tibet by burning our own bodies to call for freedom.”
Gudrup’s actions bring the number of self-immolations to 53 since February 2009, and are part of a slowly growing number taking place within the Tibet Autonomous Region. Most of the self-immolations have occurred in southwestern China.
