50 years ago....
Vietnam war reporter Malcolm Browne dies
28 Aug 2012
A journalist who
captured an iconic image of a burning South Vietnamese monk in 1963 has died at
the age of 81. Associated Press (AP) correspondent Malcolm Browne won a
Pulitzer Prize for his reporting from Vietnam in 1964. His photograph of Thich
Quang Duc, an elderly monk who set himself on fire in Saigon, became one of the
first defining images of the escalating conflict. The image reportedly made it
directly to the desk of US President John F Kennedy, who told his newly
appointed ambassador to South Vietnam: "We have to do something about that
regime." Within months South Vietnamese leader Ngo Dinh Diem was deposed
in a coup as the country's struggle against Viet Cong insurgents intensified.
Overthrow
by Stephen Kinzer, 2006, Excerpt
Description of Malcolm Browne and the Photograph
The final act in the
drama of Diems’ rule was unfolding. On May 8, Buddhists gathered in Hue to mark
the 2,527th birthday of the Buddha. The local strongman, Ngo Dinh Can – the
president’s brother – decided to enforce a old decree prohibiting the
celebrants from flying the traditional blue-red-saffron Buddhist flag.
Buddhists began a series of protest. Police fired on them, killing a woman and
eight children.
Malcolm Browne, the
Associated Press correspondent in Saigon, was still working when his office
telephone rang late on the evening of June 10, 1963. The caller was Thich Duc
Nghiep, a Buddhist monk Browne had come to know while covering the escalating
conflict between Buddhists and the catholic-dominated government of South
Vietnam. He told Browne that anyone who appeared at the Xa Loi Pagoda the next
morning would witness “an important event.”
Browne had written
extensively about the spreading Buddhist rebellion and sensed that it would
shape Vietnam’s future. Before dawn the next morning, he and his Vietnamese
assistant set out for the pagoda. They found it packed with monks in
saffron-colored robes and nuns in gray ones. The air inside was hot, thick, and
heavily scented wit incense. Smoke spiraled upward from a hundred braziers.
Holy men and women lost themselves in ancient chants.
Browne took a place.
One of the nuns approached him, and as she poured him tea, he could see tears
streaming down her face. A few minutes later, Thich Duc Nghiep caught sight of
him and approached. He had a simple question: do not leave “until events have
run their course.”
For half an hour
Browne sat amid this scene. Suddenly, at a signal, the monks and nuns stopped
their chanting, rose, solemnly filed out of the pagoda, and formed a column
outside. They assembled behind an old Austin sedan carrying five monks and
followed it through the streets. Where Phan Dinh Phung intersected with one of
the city’s major avenues, Le Van Duyet, the procession stopped. Marchers formed
a circle to block off all approaches.
Three monks emerged
from the car, one elderly and the others supporting him. The younger ones
placed a square cushion on the pavement in the center of the intersection and
helped the older one settle into the archetypal lotus position. As he fingered
his oak beads and murmured the sacred words nam mo amita Buddha, “return to
Buddha,” they fetched a gasoline tank from the car and splashed a pink
gas-and-diesel mixture over him. After they stepped away, he produced a box of
matches, lit one, and dropped it into his lap. Instantly he was consumed by
fire.
“As the breeze
whipped the flames from his face, I could see that although his eyes were
closed, his features were contorted with agony. But throughout his ordeal he
never uttered a sound or changed his position, even as the smell of burning
flesh filled the air. A horrified moan arose from the crowd, and the ragged
chanting of some of the monks was interrupted by screams and cries of anguish.
Two monks unfurled a large cloth banner reading [in English], “A Buddhist
Priest Burns for Buddhist Demands.”
Stunned by what he
was seeing, Browne reflexively shot picture after picture. After a few minutes,
a fire truck and several police cars with shrieking sirens appeared, but the
demonstrators lay in front of them and clung to their wheels so they could not
reach the pyre. Soon the flames began to subside. When they died out, several
monks appeared with a wooden coffin and tried to lift the dead man’s body into
it. His limbs had become rigid. As the coffin was carried back to Xa Loi
Pagoda, both arms spilled out. One was still smoking.
The monk who burned
himself to death on the morning of June 11 was named Thich Quang Duc. He was
sixty-seven years old, had been a monk for nearly half a century, and was
revered as a bodhisattva, a being on the path to enlightenment. In a statement
that his comrades attributed to his death, he made a “respectful” plea to Diem
to show “charity and compassion” to all religions.
The ruling family’s
most outspoken member, Madame Nhu, replied by ridiculing the spectacle of what
she called a “barbeque.” “Let them burn,” she said. “We shall clap our hands.”
Browne’s photos of
the burning monk stunned people around the world. The day after they were
taken, a visitor to the Oval Office noticed that President John F. Kennedy had
a set of them on his desk. They seemed to symbolize the unraveling of South
Vietnam and the impotence of its president, Ngo Dinh Diem. These images helped
push the Kennedy administration toward a momentous decision. Diem had lost the
administration’s confidence and would be overthrown.
A Woman Among Warlords by Malalai Joya, 2009, Excerpts
The hundreds of
Afghan women who set themselves ablaze are not only committing suicide to
escape their misery – they are crying out for justice. These heartrending cases
of self-immolation are acts of defiance as well as despair, and these women are
not just victims but symbols of resistance; they are the first stage of larger
protests against injustice.
In the News
Two
Tibetan monks in China die after self-immolations
25 Apr 2013
Two Tibetan monks
have died after setting themselves alight in southern China's Sichuan province,
reports say. The monks, aged 20 and 23, set themselves on fire at the Kirti
monastery in Aba county, said Radio Free Asia and Free Tibet. The monastery has
been a focal point of protests in recent months. More than 100 Tibetans, mostly
young monks, have set themselves on fire since 2011 - many fatally - in
apparent protest against Chinese rule.
Saudi
dies after setting himself on fire in protest
17 May 2013
The BBC understands
Mr Alhouraysi killed himself on Wednesday after being unable to present his
identification papers when he was searched by police. He is said to have been
previously stripped of his Saudi citizenship. Reports of self-immolation in the
ultra-conservative kingdom are rare. Two years ago a man in his 60s has died
after setting himself on fire in Samitah in Saudi Arabia's south-western Jizan
region. The incident echoes the death of a Tunisian who set fire to himself as
a protest in 2011, triggering revolution.
Tunisia
Khedri: Young man dies after self-immolation
13 Mar 2013
A young Tunisian
cigarette vendor has died after setting himself on fire - an act reminiscent of
the event which triggered the "Arab Spring" in 2010. Adel Khedhri,
27, set himself alight on Tuesday on a street in central Tunis, the focus of
protests which toppled long-time leader Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali two years ago. Analysts
say Tunisia is deeply divided between supporters of the Islamist-led government
and secularists, while youth unemployment remains stubbornly high.
Ivory
Coast man sets himself alight at Rome airport
14 Feb 2013
An Ivorian man about
to be deported from Italy has set himself alight at Fiumicino airport in the
capital, Rome, Italian media has reported. A customs official extinguished the
flames, but the young man is believed to be badly burnt. The man from Ivory Coast
reportedly hid the fuel in his suitcase.
France
Nantes: Man burns himself to death at job center
13 Feb 2013
A man, 43, who was
declared ineligible for unemployment benefit has died after setting himself on
fire outside a job center in western France. The police had been alerted by
messages he sent to the media announcing his plans to kill himself publicly. The
jobless number in France recently rose to levels not seen in 12 years. Last
month, a jobless man in the Spanish city of Malaga also died after setting
himself alight. Local politicians reacted with horror to news of the self-immolation,
adding that only a formal inquest could perhaps establish the man's true
motives.
Tibetans
guilty of murder for 'inciting immolations'
31 Jan 2013
A Tibetan monk has
received a suspended death sentence and his nephew 10 years in jail for
inciting eight people to self-immolate. Tibetan activists had said the men were
forced to confess to the charges. Nearly 100 Tibetans have set themselves on
fire since 2009, many fatally, in protest at Chinese rule. Most of the
self-immolations have taken place in ethnic Tibetan areas outside Tibet. Foreign
media are banned from the region, making verifying the self-immolation cases
difficult. The sentences are believed to be the first since a legal ruling
stipulating that anyone aiding immolations would be charged with murder. Activist
groups and the Tibetan government-in-exile say the self-immolations are
protests against tight Chinese control of the region and religious repression. China's
leaders blame the Dalai Lama for inciting the self-immolations and encouraging
Tibetan separatism, a charge he strongly rejects.
China
jails six Tibetans for inciting immolations
01 Feb 2013
Six ethnic Tibetans
have been sentenced to between three and 12 years in prison in China's Gansu
province in connection with a local man's self-immolation. Four were found
guilty of "intentional homicide" at Thursday's trial and two of
"picking quarrels and provoking troubles". The convictions are
believed to be the first since a legal ruling in China stipulating that anyone
aiding immolations would be charged with murder. Nearly 100 Tibetans have set
themselves on fire since 2009, many fatally, in apparent protest at Chinese
rule.
Spain Malaga: Jobless man 'burns
himself to death'
04 Jan 2012
A jobless man in the southern Spanish city of Malaga has
died in hospital a day after apparently setting himself ablaze in the
street.Neighbors and witnesses told Spanish newspapers that the 57-year-old, of
North African origin, was suffering from financial problems. Another man is
being treated in the same hospital apparently after setting himself alight in
Malaga on Thursday. The 63-year-old was found with serious injuries beside his
burning car under a road bridge, police said. Spanish media have reported a
number of cases in recent months of people facing poverty in the country's
recession killing themselves.
Tibetan students protest, as four
more self-immolations reported
27 Nov 2012
The four self-immolations occurred in Gansu, Sichuan and
Qinghai provinces on Sunday and Monday. Of the four Tibetans who set themselves
on fire in separate incidents, three are reported to have died. Teenage nun
Sangay Dolmas died in Qinghai on Sunday. Kunchok Tsering, 18, and Gonpo
Tearing, 24, died in Gansu on Monday. Wang Gyal, 20, a former monk, set himself
on fire in Sichuan on Monday. His condition is currently unknown. More than 80
Tibetans have set themselves alight since 2011 in what activists say are
protests against Beijing's rule. More than half are believed to have died.
Tibetan
immolations: China offers rewards for information
25 Oct 2012
Police in China's
Gansu province are offering rewards for information about planned
self-immolations by Tibetans. The authorities in Gansu's Gannan prefecture say
recent immolations affected social stability. On Monday a man, believed to be
in his 50s, died after he set himself on fire near the Labrang monastery. A day
later another Tibetan set himself on fire in the same region. China's leaders
blame the Dalai Lama, the Tibetans' exiled spiritual leader, for inciting the
self-immolations and encouraging separatism. He rejects this, and both activist
groups and the Tibetan government-in-exile say the self-immolations are
protests against tight Chinese control of the region and religious repression.
Gaza
teenager dies after self-immolation
03 Sep 2012
A man has died in
Gaza after setting himself alight in apparent protest against his family's
living conditions, Palestinian officials say. Mohamed Abu Nada, 18, had poured
petrol over himself after walking into the morgue at Shifa hospital in Gaza
City last Thursday, doctors said. His father said he had sent his son out to
look for work because the family was struggling to make ends meet. In recent
months, two Israelis have died of their injuries after setting themselves
alight in protest at government welfare cuts and the rising cost of living.
Two
Tibetan teenagers die in self-immolations
28 Aug 2012
Two Tibetan teenagers
have died after setting themselves on fire in Sichuan province, outside the
Kirti Monastery in Aba county, where many of the self-immolations have taken
place. This brings the number of Tibetans who have set themselves on fire since
2009 to 51. The young men were shouting slogans against Chinese rule and
policies in Tibet as their bodies burned.
The
event that sparked the Arab Spring
17 Dec 2011
Rallies have marked
the first anniversary of the event that triggered the Arab Spring uprisings. Young
Tunisian Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire after he was banned from selling
fruit to earn a living. His extreme act sparked the first open protests against
the Tunisian government, which in turn set off demonstrations around the Arab
world.
Why do people set themselves on
fire?
18 Jan 2011
The spectacle of a violent death in a public place can also
have an enormous impact. Over the past few decades, hundreds of people have
sacrificed their lives in this kind of protest, including Vietnamese Buddhists,
Lithuanian nationalists, South Korean leftists, upper-caste Indian students and
Kurdish nationalists in Western Europe. Photographer Malcolm Browne's picture
of an elderly Buddhist monk, Thich Quang Duc, engulfed in flames as he burned
himself to death in Saigon in 1963, has become one of the iconic images of the
war. In 1965, Alice Herz, an 82-year-old pacifist, immolated herself on a
Detroit street corner in an act of protest against the Vietnam War. This was
followed by the suicide of Norman Morrison, who set fire to himself on the
steps of the Pentagon. And in 1969, a young university student named Jan Palach initiated the use of this form of
protest against the Soviet Union, in an act of self-immolation in Wenceslas
Square in Prague. Palach became a legend almost overnight and still has a significant
place in Czech mythology.
