Tibetan self-immolator dubbed martyr

DHARAMSHALA: Thousands of Tibetans gathered at their main temple here whereJamphel Yeshi, a 26-year-old Tibetan who immolated himself in Delhi, was cremated. There was a massive display of support for Yeshi's martyrdom with more than 5,000 Tibetans taking out a procession leading to traffic jams in McLeodganj. Some of Tibetan shops remained closed. 

Yeshi's body was brought to McLeodganj in a huge convoy after being received in Kangra town. Youths put up Tibetan flags on their bikes and wrote slogans on their cars. All the streets of the town and the main

Buddhist temple had Yeshi's self-immolation posters pasted on them with freedom slogans. Demanding full support of the Indian government and the international community, the Tibetans condemned the arrest of their brethren in Delhi. 

"The arrest of Tibetans in Delhi is unfortunate. We need global support at this stage when our people are committing self-immolation inside Tibet," said Sonam Dorjee, welfare officer of Tibetans. 

Tibetan parliament-in-exile's speaker Penpa Tsering said, "Hu Jintao is responsible for two more lives since he came to India. The question is how many more Tibetans will have to die before the issue is resolved?" 

On the absence of the Dalai Lama, who was in Dharamshala, one of his foreigner followers said that the spiritual leader was against self immolations as it was a violent way of protest. Prime Minister Lobsang Sangay is away in Japan.