Man sets self on fire in Tiananmen: report
Posted on: Thursday, 20 July 2006, 04:42 CDT
BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese farmer set himself on fire in Beijing's central Tiananmen Square on Thursday and was being treated in hospital, a human rights group said.
Tiananmen Square, the symbolic political heart of China and the site of the 1989 massacre of pro-democracy protesters, is a magnet for protest and security there is tight.
Thursday's incident happened at 9 a.m. and the flames were soon extinguished, the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy said in a statement.
It added the farmer's motive was unclear.
The report could not immediately be independently verified.
In 2001 five practitioners of the banned spiritual movement Falun Gong set themselves on fire in Tiananmen square.
Thousands of Chinese make their way to Beijing each year to petition the central government after failing to get redress at the local or provincial level.
Source: REUTERS
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