Tibetan monk dies after self-immolation in China Kunchok Sonam, 18, carried out the protest on Saturday outside a monastery in Aba prefecture, part of Sichuan province, Radio Free Asia said in a report which cited local residents. Sonam shouted slogans "crying for Tibetan freedom," the broadcaster, which is funded by the US government, cited a local resident as saying. The self-immolation was the first by a Tibetan in China for five weeks, the report said, adding that his fellow monks had prevented Chinese authorities from taking away the Sonam's body after the deadly protest. The protests - which reportedly have resulted in dozens of deaths - peaked in the run up the ruling Communist Party's pivotal Party Congress last November, but have become less common in recent months. Beijing condemns the acts and blames them on exiled Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama, saying he uses them to further a separatist agenda. But Tibetans and human rights groups say the protests are a response to tight controls on religion in the region. The Dalai Lama, a Nobel Peace laureate who has lived in India since 1959 after a failed uprising in Tibet, has described the protests as acts of desperation that he is powerless to stop.