Vietnamese war invalid burns himself to death
HANOI - A Vietnamese war invalid died after setting himself ablaze
outside a police station in a southern town, a
local government official said on Friday.
The official said the man -- who had had a bullet
lodged in his head since the Vietnam War --
was an ice-cream vendor in Vung Tau town in
coastal Ba Ria-Vung Tau province, 120 km (75
miles) from Ho Chi Minh City.
The man, whose name has not been released,
had apparently been upset after his ice-cream
trolley was confiscated during a campaign to
restore street order in line with a government
decree, the local official said.
The war invalid appeared outside the police
station one morning late last month, poured
petrol over himself and set himself alight, the
official said.
However, the official said it was unclear if the
act was in protest at the government decree.
``He has threatened to burn himself several
times and we regret he did this because his
family is very poor,'' the official told Reuters by
telephone from Vung Tau.
The man was taken to a hospital in Ho Chi
Minh City after setting himself on fire but died
three days later, the official added.
Self-immolation became a traditional form of
protest by Buddhist monks in the 1960s and
during the Vietnam War, which ended in 1975.
Occasional reports of self-immolation surface
each year in Vietnam.
REUTERS, June 11, 1998.
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