A Tibetan man died from severe burns after being found near the United Nations headquarters in New York, with activists identifying him as Lobga Rangzen, who they say carried out the act in a bid for Tibetan independence and unity. Police said an investigation
By the time police arrived, the moment had already turned irreversible.
New York City police said a man died from severe burns near the United Nations headquarters on Thursday. after emergency responders found him badly burned following a call made around 6:30 p.m. ET. The man was taken to Bellevue Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, police said, adding that an investigation was ongoing. Police did not name the man and did not provide any potential motive.
Activists and a media outlet of exiled Tibetans identified the man as a Tibetan who set himself on fire in an appeal for independence. Voice of Tibet said Tibetan activist Lobga Rangzen “self-immolated outside the UN headquarters in New York after a live appeal for Tibetan independence and unity.”
The reports tied Rangzen to a life on the road and a community that recognized him on sight. A local news site. amNewYork. reported that Rangzen was an Uber driver and that he went to the scene with a Tibetan flag. The website quoted fellow Uber driver Lobsang Paljor, who said he knew Rangzen from gatherings in the Tibetan community.
Paljor told the news website that Rangzen was “enraged by the restrictions the Chinese government had placed on his countrymen.”
That individual account of anger lands against a backdrop that has grown sharper in recent years. The United States and the European Union have expressed concern about China’s new ethnic unity law. which went into 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 the country’s 55 ethnic minority groups, including Tibetans and Uyghurs. Tibetans around the world have opposed the law.
Tibetans have also staged self-immolations before, protesting Beijing’s policies in Tibet and in nearby regions with large Tibetan populations. China seized control of Tibet in 1950 in what it describes as a “peaceful liberation” from feudalistic serfdom.
At a daily news conference on Friday. Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun responded to the death by saying Tibet has been an inalienable part of the country’s territory since ancient times. Beijing believes, Guo said, that “relevant countries will handle the matter in accordance with domestic laws.”.
International human rights groups and exiles, however, have routinely condemned what they call China’s oppressive rule in Tibetan areas. China rejects those assessments. Ethnic minority issues are highly sensitive in China. with Tibetans and other minorities put under heavy surveillance for any sign of alleged “separatism.” Beijing has exerted greater institutional control in Tibet since Xi Jinping became the country’s president in 2012.
Tencho Gyatso, president of the International Campaign for Tibet, described Rangzen as “a tireless advocate for Tibet” and said she was “deeply saddened” by his death.
The International Campaign for Tibet says there were more than 150 self-immolations by Tibetans between 2009 and 2022. Its data also says that 10 self-immolations by Tibetans have occurred while people were in exile.
The chain of details—police finding a badly burned man near the UN headquarters at about 6:30 p.m. ET, activists identifying him as Rangzen, and a community describing his anger at restrictions—creates a single stark storyline. It plays out while Beijing points to territorial claims and domestic legal handling. and while exiled voices frame the death as the latest act in a longer struggle over independence and unity.
Tibetan activist Lobga Rangzen self-immolation United Nations headquarters New York City Police Department Bellevue Hospital Voice of Tibet ethnic unity law China Xi Jinping International Campaign for Tibet