BEIJING, April 11 (China Tibet Online) Tibetologists with China Tibetology Research Center said in a media briefing on April 10 that citizen of the Tibet Autonomous Region had never committed self-immolation.

Lian Xiangmin, director of the Contemporary Institute and Tsering Yangzom, a Tibetologist specialized in Tibetan cultural and social research of China Tibetology Center (CTC) attended the press briefing themed "Contemporary life of Tibetans" held by All-China Journalists Association. After a briefing of the social, political and economic changes over the past six decades in Tibet and people's material, political and spiritual life at present, the two Tibetologists answered questions for domestic and oversea reporters and journalist.

A correspondent with the NOS Radio (a radio and television association of the Netherlands) raised a question on the improvement of Tibetans' life over the past decades and asked why "people in Tibet were so unhappy that they committed self-immolations".

Lian pointed out that foreign media's reports about "Tibetans committing self-immolations" was untrue as "Tibetans" referred to in the reports were not "people in Tibet". He quoted from Padma Choling, chairman of the Standing Committee of Tibet People's Congress that no people in Tibet had committed self-immolation.

"I know some of you may get confused since it was said there were 'Tibetans' who committed self-immolations in recent years. But, I’d like you to understand that the 'Tibet' we talk about refers to the Tibet Autonomous Region in China with Lhasa as its capital… The two cases in 2012 reported by western media as 'self-immolations in Tibet' had been identified as two young men from the Aba Tibetan-Qiang Autonomous Prefecture of southwest China’s Sichuan Province and the Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of northwest China's Gansu Province instead of the Tibet Autonomous Region."

He also said that investigations had revealed that the self-immolators were mostly monks in their twenties who had been instigated by overseas separation forces led by the 14th Dalai Lama and his group.

"And it is irrational to claim China's Tibet policy problematic simply because of the occurrence of self-immolations, otherwise some so-called ‘democratic countries' might be questioned as well since we all know that China is not the country that has witnessed most cases of self-immolations."

Lian further stressed that political sabotage and instigation by overseas separatists are the root cause of the heart-wrenching suicides.