The United States, the European Union and worldwide rights groups had called for the release of the 65-yeard-old, who was serving a 20-year sentence on charges of “crimes of terror and incitement of separatism”. Even in death he continues to generate controversy: to the dismay of his family and fellow Tibetans, who wanted funeral arrangements honoring their religious traditions, Chinese authorities cremated his body and moved swiftly against those trying to protest his treatment.
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Delek, 65, was 13 years into a life sentence for terrorism and separatism, imposed following a trial observers said was deeply flawed, when authorities announced news of his death last weekend.
Delek was cremated on Thursday before Tibetan burial rights could be carried out, according to Students for a Free Tibet (SFT).
China’s criminal law denies all prisoners serving life sentences from medical parole. The state news organization also said doctors came to rescue, sending the monk further to the hospital’s intensive care unit from the emergency center, but was declared dead after an hour.
A Tibetan monk, who committed self-immolation more than a week ago in China, has succumbed to his injuries, the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) here said on Friday.
Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama fled Tibet after an abortive uprising in 1959 and established his government-in-exile in Dharamsala, India.
The man, apparently in his twenties, climbed onto the pole with full mountain gear in front of the embassy in the national capital and hoisted a banner carrying the image of late Rinpoche and with “Justice For Tulku Tenzin Delek” written over it. He was detained by the police soon after he climbed down. China views the Dalai Lama as a separatist and has threatened foreign governments with strained relations for hosting him. The cause of Tenzin Delek’s death was not clear, his cousin said, but rights groups had said he was suffering from a heart condition.
Several protests in Delek’s hometown and in the southwestern city of Chengdu, where he was jailed, have taken place since his death was announced, according to the US-based worldwide Campaign for Tibet (ICT) and other Tibetan rights groups.
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With files from Reuters and New York Times News Service.
