World Tibet Network News Tuesday, May 05, 1998 (II)

NEW DELHI, India, May 5, 1998 (AP) -- Monks chanted Buddhist hymns and lit oil lamps today in special prayers for a Tibetan who burned himself to death in a protest that highlights the growing frustration among Tibetan exiles in India.

The service marked the first week since a 50-year-old former monk, doused himself in gasoline and set himself ablaze to protest the police breakup of hunger strike by six other Tibetan exiles protesting China's rule of their homeland.

Ngodup's self-immolation April 27 was the most dramatic incident in nearly 40 years of peaceful protests by Tibetan exiles in India.

``We're praying that his soul rests in peace,'' said Karma Yeshe, vice president of the Tibetan Youth Congress, which organized the prayers and the hunger strike. He said prayers will be held each week for the next seven weeks, in keeping with Buddhist custom.

Five other Tibetan exiles have begun a hunger strike in a tent in New Delhi to demand a U.N. debate on China's 1959 annexation of Tibet. The protesters also want the United Nations to appoint a human rights observer for Tibet and to supervise a referendum on whether Tibetans want independence, greater autonomy or some other option.

About 120,000 Tibetan refugees live in India, where their spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, runs a government-in-exile.

The Dalai Lama has said the hunger strike and self-immolation, which he believes violate Buddhist teachings of nonviolence, reflect frustration over the failure of his more moderate approach of lobbying heads of state.