Tibet’s exiled prime minister said China’s authoritarian regime was responsible for ITS spate of self-immolations by exerting too much pressure on locals, putting them in a "desperate situation."

Around nine people have set themselves on fire in the Tibet region of China over the past several months to protest the communist regime’s suppression of their culture and spirituality. 

“Through its propaganda, Beijing shows a different image, but in reality China practices colonialism and systematic destruction of the unique Tibetan culture, religion, language, and environment because of which Tibetans have peacefully demonstrated time and again,” Prime Minster Lobsang Sangay said in Dharamsala, India, according to a statement.

Sangay paid tribute to the lives lost recently and expressed “solidarity with those Tibetans who have sacrificed their lives for the cause of Tibet and particularly those who self-immolated, their families, and those suffering repression in Tibet.”

Two AFP journalists were able to gain access to Kirti Town, where many protests have taken place, earlier this week and saw that police with full riot gear holding automatic rifles stood outside of Kirti Monastery. They noted throngs of police and army forces throughout the town. 

In the most recent incident, a Tibetan Buddhist nun called for religious freedom and set herself on fire earlier this week.