Giving their lives in protest

Tibetans are setting themselves on fire to demonstrate against Chinese rule, write Tim Sullivan and Gillian Wong

FOR more than a year the deadly protests have swept the Tibetan plateau, waves of people burning themselves alive in a widening challenge to Chinese rule.

The prime minister of Tibet’s government-in-exile calls them acts of desperation. The Dalai Lama says they give China an excuse for even harsher crackdowns. To many Tibetans, they are carefully reasoned attempts to bring attention to an often-forgotten cause.