Martial Law After Monk’s Suicide

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30212, 17 August 1963, Page 13

Martial Law After Monk’s Suicide

(K2. Preet Association—Copyrtoht) NEW YORK, August 16. A 71-year-old monk burned himself to death at 4 a.m. today in his ceremonial robes inside the biggest pagoda in the South Vietnamese city of Hue, the Associated Press reported from Hue. He was the fifth person to burn to death in the mounting Buddhist campaign against the Government of President Ngo Dinh Diem, who is a Roman Catholic.

His self-immolation in the courtyard of the Tu Dam pagoda brought immediate martial law to Hue, which lies 400 miles north of Saigon and is the ancient capital of Vietnam. He was the third to burn to death this week. A 17-yeair-old novice monk committed suicide on Tuesday and a middle-aged nun took her life in Ninh Hoa yesterday. The nun’s suicide touched off demonstrations in the

coastal city of Nhatnang, 15 mites south of Ninh Hoa. Troops dispersed the mob with fire hoees. They later ringed the area armed with tear gas and American automatic rifles. The nun Dieu Quan.g, aged 67, set fire to herself in the market place before a huge crowd. All persons in Hue other than civil servants and troops were ordered to Stoy indoors to prevent any demonstrations. The monk who died today was identified as Thach Tieu Dieu. His burning apparently was organised by the Buddhist hierarchy and was similar to the suicide of the

monk, Quang Due, in Saigon —the first of the burnings. Only those two suicides were approved by the Buddhist hierarchy. The other three were carried out without the sanction of the General Buddhist Association of Vietnam, which is heading the campaign to gain equal rights for Buddhism. The suicide today was apparently precipitated by the Government’s taking of the body of the novice monk who burned himself to death privately outside his pagoda in Hue. The Government has succeeded in getting the bodies of three of the Buddhists who have burned themselves to death. Immediately after Friday’s burning in Hue, several hundred armed troops ringed the pagoda but did not enter. The body of the latest suicide victim is being held by the Buddhists in the pagoda.