Tibet’s chief official says self-immolation incidents don’t happen in Tibet

(8 Mar 2018) A man set himself on fire and died in western China’s Sichuan province in the first self-immolation protest among Tibetans this year, monitoring groups reported on Thursday. Tsekho Tugchak, reportedly in his 40s, died in Ngaba county on Wednesday amid intensified security in the restive region ahead of the anniversary of a 2008 anti-China riot and 1959 independence uprising, the International Campaign for Tibet said. In Beijing, Tibet’s Communist Party chief — the region’s most powerful official — dismissed the reports. “I don’t think they’re telling the truth,“ Wu Yingjie told reporters at a meeting on the sidelines of the annual session of China’s ceremonial parliament. “If such self-immolations happened in the United States, it really wouldn’t be that weird, but I can tell you that in Tibet that these kinds of self-immolation incidents don’t happen,“ Wu said. ICT said his death was the 153rd self-immolation by a Tibetan since t