New York, United States. A man died from severe burns near the United Nations headquarters in New York City on Thursday, police said. Activists and a media outlet of exiled Tibetans identified him as a Tibetan who set himself on fire in an appeal for independence.
Police response and investigation
A New York City Police Department spokesman said officers responding to an emergency call at about 6:30 p.m. ET found the man badly burned.
He was taken to Bellevue Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, police said. Authorities did not identify the man or provide any possible motive, and said the investigation was ongoing.
Identification by activists and media reports
Voice of Tibet, a media outlet of exiled Tibetans, said Tibetan activist Lobga Rangzen “self-immolated outside the UN headquarters in New York after a live appeal for Tibetan independence and unity.”
Local news site amNewYork reported that he was an Uber driver and had gone to the scene with a Tibetan flag. The website quoted fellow Uber driver Lobsang Paljor as saying he knew Rangzen from gatherings in the Tibetan community.
Paljor told amNewYork that Rangzen “was enraged by the restrictions the Chinese government had placed on his countrymen.”
Background on Tibetan protests
The United States and the European Union have expressed concern about China’s new ethnic unity law, which took effect this week and gives Beijing the legal basis to take action against people outside its borders.
The law creates a “shared” national identity among China’s 55 ethnic minority groups, including Tibetans and Uyghurs, some of whom oppose Chinese governance. Tibetans around the world have opposed the law.
Tibetans have previously committed acts of self-immolation in protest against Beijing’s policies in Tibet and nearby regions with large Tibetan populations.
China took control of Tibet in 1950 in what it describes as a “peaceful liberation” from feudalistic serfdom.