Man holding Tibetan flag dies after setting himself on fire outside UN

A man has died after setting himself on fire while holding a Tibetan flag outside the United Nations headquarters in New York, police said.

The New York Police Department said on Thursday that law enforcement personnel responding to an emergency call made at about 6:30pm local time (22:30 GMT) found a 52-year-old man with severe burns throughout his body.

The man was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead, police said, adding that an investigation was ongoing.

A spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement to the AFP news agency: “We are saddened by this tragic and horrific incident, and offer our condolences to his family.”

US media and a pro-Tibet activist said the individual was a pro-Tibet campaigner. Police did not confirm this claim or provide any potential motive for his action.

Tencho Gyatso, president of the International Campaign for Tibet, named the deceased man as Lobga Rangzen.

“Lobga was a tireless advocate for Tibet who devoted himself to peacefully raising awareness of the human rights crisis in Tibet,” Gyatso said in a statement to AFP.

Gyatso said Rangzen had condemned China’s new “Law on Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress” that Beijing said aims to forge a “shared” national identity among ethnic groups.

Overseas campaigners have argued it will further degrade the rights of ethnic minorities, like Uighurs and Tibetans, that Beijing is accused of persecuting.

The United States and the European Union have also expressed concern about the new law, which gives Beijing the legal basis to also take action against people outside its borders.

There have been more than 150 self-immolations by Tibetans between 2009 and 2022, according to the International Campaign for Tibet.

Beijing in 1950 sent troops to Tibet, the vast high-altitude plateau it says has been an integral part of China for more than seven centuries.

International human rights groups and exiles have routinely condemned what they call China’s oppressive rule in Tibetan areas – assessments China rejects.

The 90-year-old Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, has been based in India since fleeing the Tibetan capital Lhasa after Chinese troops crushed an uprising in 1959.

China does not recognise Tibet’s government-in-exile, the Central Tibetan Administration, and has not held dialogue with the Dalai Lama’s representatives since 2010.

The Dalai Lama’s longstanding “Middle Way” policy seeks autonomy and a “resolution to the Sino-Tibet conflict through non-violence, dialogue and mutual benefit”.