昨天（2月5日）中午，我接受了纽约时报的电话采访，是关于2月4日在西藏东部色达（今四川省甘孜藏族自治州色达县）发生的3位藏人自焚事件。我并且强调了，迄今，自焚的境内藏人已达20人！
我也告诉记者的翻译，我在博客上记录了这最新的消息。
但看到 纽约时报的报道 时，我发现，关于自焚的境内藏人，纽约时报写的却是19人，而不是20人！也即是说，依然忽略了2009年的第一起自焚！依然是从去年境内藏人的自焚算起，可这是为什么呢？！
我向记者翻译询问了原因。回复说：“编辑们讨论了很久是写‘2009年以来20起’还是写‘近一年来19起’，最后认为后者更能表达出事态的严重，是编辑们投票的结果。”
虽然新闻报道是要突出事态严重性，但我还是认为，不应该忽略2009年发生在境内藏地的第一起自焚。其实报道中如果多写一句话，介绍境内藏人的第一起自焚发生于2009年，那么富含的意义会更多。要知道，2009年的第一起自焚其实意义很重要，在境内藏人的系列自焚中是开端，是率先。
另外，如果只从2011年说起，可能会有歧义出现，比如已经有评论认为藏人自焚是受了引发中东“茉莉花革命”的突尼斯小贩自焚（时为2010年12月17日）的影响，显然并非如此。当然纽约时报的这篇报道并没有如是说。
在以身自焚这么大的生命事件面前，是20人就是20人，多一人少一人都不应该。独裁者斯大林说过一句冷冰冰的话：“一个人的死亡是悲剧，而一百万人的死亡只是一个数字。”对于我们来说，20位自焚的境内藏人不是可以减少的数字，而是一个一个、直至二十个原本活生生的生命。
值得一提的是，纽约时报方面在知道我的意见之后，显然是重视的。很快我得到翻译的回复：“已经按照你的意见修改了。请在晚上七点以后再看一下网站的报道。”据说要在这句话——“过去一年中藏人自焚总数增加到19起”——后面，将2009年的第一起自焚补充进去。如果是这样，不失为负责任的态度，应当致谢。
以下为纽约时报的原文：
3 Tibetan Herders Self-Immolate in Anti-Chinese Protest
By SHARON LaFRANIERE
Published: February 5, 2012
BEIJING — In a fresh illustration of growing turmoil among ethnic Tibetans in Sichuan Province, three livestock herders have set themselves on fire to protest what they saw as political and religious repression at the hands of the Chinese authorities, according to a Tibetan rights group and an ethnic Tibetan living in Beijing.
The latest cases bring the total self-immolations by ethnic Tibetans over the past year to 19. They were also apparently the first by lay people, rather than current or former members of the clergy, suggesting that self-immolation may be gaining popularity as a form of dissent. The self-immolations took place Friday in a remote village in Seda County, once a center of Buddhist teaching, but reports did not surface until the weekend because the government had cut off Internet and telephone connections to the area, said Tsering Woeser, a Tibetan poet in Beijing.
She said that one of the three men had died and that the two others, believed to be about 30 and 60 years old, were severely injured.
The Chinese government has sealed off a number of counties in the region and intensified security in an attempt to curtail the largest outbreak of unrest among ethnic Tibetans since the 2008 riots in Tibet’s capital, Lhasa, and elsewhere.
Protests in late January turned deadly in Seda, which is on the border of Gansu Province, and in Luhuo County, known in Tibetan as Draggo, about 80 miles, to the south.
Human rights groups that track the repression of Tibetans have given varying accounts of the number of protesters who died in clashes with the police last month. Some say that two people were killed when the police fired into crowds; other estimates ranged as high as 11, with dozens wounded.
The Chinese authorities, blaming Tibetan separatists for inciting the violence, assert that security officers fired in self-defense, killing two rioters, after mobs stormed police stations and smashed store windows.
Two dozen police officers and firefighters were wounded while trying to subdue the disturbances, the state-run media reported.
The latest reports suggest that self-immolation as a form of protest is spreading beyond the Tibetan clergy, Robert Barnett, director of the Modern Tibetan Studies Program at Columbia University in New York, said by telephone. Until Friday, the 16 self-immolations from the past year had involved monks, nuns or former clergy members, he said.
Judging by the names given for the two injured men, Tsaptai Tsering, and Kyarel, Mr. Barnett said, the latest protesters appeared to be lay people. Ms. Woeser, the poet, said that the three had herded sheep and cows and were not members of the clergy. Unlike the others, they lived far from the larger towns and monasteries where past protests had occurred, according to media reports.
“There is a lot of frustration in the Tibetan areas,” Mr. Barnett said. “People are saying they aren’t being listened to; the government didn’t respond constructively to the protests in 2008 and didn’t respond constructively to the whole year we’ve seen of self-immolations.”
In Sichuan Province in particular, he said, the authorities have blocked off monasteries and adopted other aggressive measures that have raised tensions.
Michael Wines contributed reporting and Mia Li contributed research.
北京 – 一西藏人权组织与一位住在北京的藏人指出， 四川藏区又有三位牧民自焚，以抗议中国当局对其政治宗教的压迫，这是当地藏人动荡不安愈演愈烈的最新例证。
最近的案例使过去一年中藏人自焚总数增加到19起。这也似是首次非僧侣人士自焚的案例，表明自焚作为异议形式越加普遍。这几起自焚事件上星期五在也是佛教教学中心的色达县的偏远村庄发生，在北京的藏人诗人茨仁唯色说，由于政府切断了当地的互联网与电话联系，直到周末才有消息传出。
她说，三名男子中已有一人死亡，另外两人，年龄约为30岁和60岁，则受伤严重。
中国政府已经封锁了该地区的几个县份，并加强了安全措施，试图阻止自2008年在西藏首府拉萨及其它地区的骚动以来在藏人中发生的最大动乱。
一月下旬在与甘肃接壤的色达以及在南面约130公里的炉霍（藏人称章戈）发生的抗议中均有人死亡。
在上月发生的示威中，对在与警方冲突中死亡的人数，关注藏人的人权组织给出了不同的数字。有的说，当警察向人群开枪后，有两人身亡。其他估计不等，最高达11人死亡，并有数十人受伤。
中国当局则谴责“藏独”分子煽动暴力，并称公安人员是在暴民冲进警察局，砸碎商店窗户之后，为了自卫开枪，并打死两名暴徒。
官方媒体报道在平息骚乱过程中，有二十多名警察与消防队员受伤。
纽约哥伦比亚大学现代西藏研究计划主任罗伯特·巴尼特在电话采访中说，最新报告显示，自焚作为一种抗议形式，已经不仅限于僧侣。他说，直到星期五，过去一年中发生的16起自焚事件仅限于僧人，尼姑或还俗的僧尼。
巴内特先生说，从两名受伤者擦才次仁、嘉日的名字来看，最新的抗议者似乎是俗人。 诗人唯色女士说，这三位都是牧民，而不是僧人。根据媒体报道，与其他自焚者不同，他们住的地方远离大城镇以及发生过抗议活动的寺庙。
巴内特先生说，“藏区中有极大的不满情绪，那里的人说他们的话没人听。政府对2008年的抗议没有建设性的回应，也对一年之内所见的自焚没有建设性的回应。”
他说，特别是在四川省，当局封锁寺院，并采取其他过激措施，使局势更加紧张。
本文由自动聚合程序取自网络，内容和观点不代表数字时代立场
