List of political self-immolations

This is a list of notable people who committed self-immolation, the act of setting themselves on fire, for political reasons. Non-political self-immolations are not included in the list.

Date	Name	Age	Country	Protesting	Notes and references
June 11, 1963	Thích Quảng Đức	66	South Vietnam	Persecution of Buddhists by the government of Ngô Đình Diệm	Led to several other monks and nuns committing the same act. Before Diệm was toppled, the photo, photographed by Malcolm Browne, became well-associated with his political protest.
August 4, 1963	Thitch Mguyen Huong [sic]	20s			Buddhist monk. immolated himself in the town center of Phan Thiết. Government soldiers removed his body before other monks could recover it.^[9]
August 13, 1963	Thich Thanh Tuck [sic]	17			Buddhist novice monk.^[9]
August 15, 1963	Dieti Quang [sic]	–			Buddhist nun. Immolated herself in the courtyard of Từ Đàm Pagoda in Huế.^[9]
August 16, 1963	Thich Tieu	71			Buddhist monk. He soaked his robes in gasoline and immolated himself in the courtyard of Từ Đàm Pagoda in Huế. Before, he announced over the loudspeaker that he was going to commit suicide in demand for Buddhist rights. After his death (the third self-immolation in one week), the government declared martial law, sparking more Buddhist protests.^[9]
October 27, 1963	Ho Dan Van	35–45			Buddhist monk. Dressed in civilian clothing, he was dropped off by a motorcyclist in front of a Catholic cathedral in Saigon, where he squatted in a lotus-fashion, poured gasoline in his lap and struck a match.^[10]
December 1963	unidentified female			Vietnam War	Three men immolated themselves in the next week, all for personal reasons.^[11]
January 25, 1964	Kizappazuvur Chinnasamy	27	India	Imposition of Hindi over the Tamil language	Inspired 5 other self-immolations.^[9]^[12]
1965	Keeranoor Muthu	21			Hotel worker^[9]
January 26, 1965	Kodambakkam Sivalingam	21			Madras city government employee^[9]
January 27, 1965	Virugambakkam Aranganathan	33			Worked in Madras for the Telephone Department.^[9]
February 11, 1965	Ayampalayam Veerappan	26			School headmaster^[9]
February 1965	Satyamangalam Muthu	21			Farmer^[9]
March 1965	Mayavaram Sarangapani	20			Student^[9]
March 16, 1965	Alice Herz	82	United States	Vietnam War	Women Strike for Peace member. Immolated herself on a street corner in Detroit, Michigan.^[9]
April 20, 1965	Thich Giac Thanh		South Vietnam	Vietnam War	Buddhist monk^[13]
July 23, 1965	Huh Jik	62	South Korea	Treaty on Basic Relations between Japan and the Republic of Korea	Worked for a minor political party. Immolated himself on the steps of the Seoul Capitol.^[9]
October 12, 1965	Hiroko Hayashi	36	United States	Vietnam War	Japanese American. Immolated himself in San Diego, California.^{[note 1]}
November 2, 1965	Norman Morrison	31			Quaker from Baltimore.^[9] Committed act below Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara's Pentagon office in front of his one-year-old daughter.^[14]
November 9, 1965	Roger Allen LaPorte	22			Catholic Worker. Immolated himself in front of the Headquarters of the United Nations in New York City.^[15]
November 9, 1965	Celene Jankowski	24			Mother whose 3-month-old daughter died in October 1965. Her brother had also died in the Korean War. Immolated herself in front of her home in South Bend, Indiana.^[9] Survived.
April 7, 1966	Nikolai Didyk	26	Soviet Union	Government refusal to let him fight in the Vietnam War	Died on April 10.^[16]
May 28, 1966	Thích Nữ Thanh Quảng	55	South Vietnam	Government of Nguyễn Cao Kỳ and United States support of the regime (Buddhist Uprising)	Buddhist nun.^[9]^[17]
	Ho Thi Thieu	58			Buddhist laywoman. Immolated herself in pagoda in Saigon. Thousands were present, and monks covered her body with a Buddhist flag.^[9]^[17]
	Thích Nữ Vinh Ngoc	19			Buddhist nun. Immolated herself in Huế.^[9]^[18]
May 29, 1966	Name missing	–			Buddhist monk immolated himself in Da Lat.^[17]
May 31, 1966	Nguyen Thi Van	17			Buddhist laywoman. Immolated herself outside a pagoda in Huế.^[9]^[18]
	Name missing	–			Buddhist^[18]
	Name missing	–			Buddhist^[18]
June 4, 1966	Thích Nữ Dien Dinh	26			Buddhist nuns. Immolated themselves in the courtyard of a small pagoda in Da Nang.^[9]^[18]
	Thích Nữ Bao Luan	24
	Thích Dieu Nữ Tri	–
	Name missing	–			Novice Buddhist monk. Immolated himself in Quảng Trị^[18]
June 17, 1966	Woman; name missing	–			^[9]
July 12, 1966	Liangqing	70	China	Destruction of the Famen Temple	Buddhist monk^[19]
April 26, 1967	Peter Tyrrell	51	United Kingdom	Child abuse in Irish industrial schools^[20]	Immolated himself on Hampstead Heath. Wrote an autobiography titled Founded on Fear, which was published posthumously in 2006.
May 16, 1967	Nhất Chi Mai	34	South Vietnam	Vietnam War	Buddhist nun^[9]^[21]
August 18, 1967	John Copping	33	United States	Vietnam War	Navy veteran.^[22]
October 3, 1967	Thích Nữ Tri	–	South Vietnam	1967 South Vietnamese presidential election	Buddhist nun^[9]^[23]
October 8, 1967	Woman; name missing	–	South Vietnam	1967 South Vietnamese presidential election	–
October 15, 1967	Florence Beaumont	55	United States	Vietnam War	^[24]
October 22, 1967	Thích Nữ Hue	–	South Vietnam	1967 South Vietnamese presidential election	Buddhist nun^[9]^[23]
November 1, 1967	Thích Nữ Thuong	–	South Vietnam	1967 South Vietnamese presidential election	Buddhist nun^[9]^[23]
November 12, 1967	Yui Chunoshin [eo]	73	Japan	Vietnam War	Esperantist^[25]^[26]^[27]
December 4, 1967	Erik Thoen	27	United States		Zen Buddhist. Immolated himself in Sunnyvale, California.^[9]
December 5, 1967	Kenneth D'Elia	20	United States		Immolated himself outside the United Nations headquarters in New York City, replicating Roger LaPorte's death two years earlier. Died on December 12.^[28]^[29]
February 29, 1968	Pham Van Qui	28	South Vietnam		Buddhist layman immolated himself outside pagoda.^[30]
March 19, 1968	Ronald Brazee	16	United States		Student. Died 5 weeks later.^[31]
April 2, 1968	Kazuo Shirakawa	17	Japan		Burned self with kerosene outside the U.S. consulate in Osaka. Died 12 hours later.^[32]
September 8, 1968	Ryszard Siwiec	59	Poland	Poland's participation in Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia	Died 4 days later.^[33]
September 14, 1968	Michaele Burrazzo	40	Italy	Unemployment	Survived.^[34]
November 5, 1968	Vasyl Makukh	40	Soviet Union	Soviet rule in Ukraine	Immolated himself on Khreshchatyk, Kyiv's main street, while shouting "Colonialism out of Ukraine!" and "Long live a free Ukraine!"^[35]
January 16, 1969	Jan Palach	20	Czechoslovakia	Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia	Student. Inspired other self-immolations in Soviet satellite states.^[36]
January 20, 1969	Sándor Bauer	17	Hungary	Communist rule in Hungary and Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia	Died 3 days later^[9]^[37]
January 20, 1969	Josef Hlavatý	25	Czechoslovakia	Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia	Blue-collar worker. Immolated himself in Plzeň. Died 5 days later.^[9]^[38]
January 22, 1969	Miroslav Malinka	–			Blue-collar worker. Referenced Jan Palach. Immolated himself in Brno.^[9]^[38]
January 26, 1969	Jan Bereš	16			Apprentice. Referenced Jan Palach. Immolated himself in Cheb.^[38]
January 31, 1969	Gilbert Antonio Sanginetto	19	Italy		Survived.^[39]
February 10, 1969	Mykola Bereslavsky	45	Soviet Union	Soviet rule in Ukraine	^[9]
February 15, 1969	Lodovico Ferretti	17	Italy	Anger against capitalist system	Survived.^[40]
February 25, 1969	Jan Zajíc	19	Czechoslovakia	Communist rule in Czechoslovakia	Student^{[citation needed]}
March 30, 1969	Francine Lecomte	30	France	Nigerian Civil War	Woman, apparently obsessed with Biafra, set herself on fire and died outside the Nigerian embassy in Paris.^[41]^[42]
April 2, 1969	Evžen Plocek	39	Czechoslovakia	Communist rule in Czechoslovakia	Businessman^{[citation needed]}
April 9, 1969	Eliyahu Rips	20	Soviet Union		Survived. Later became professor of mathematics.^{[citation needed]}
April 11, 1969	Michal Lefčík [sk]	19	Czechoslovakia		Soldier^[43]
May 30, 1969	Bruce Mayrock	20	United States	Genocide against Biafra in the Nigerian Civil War	Columbia University student. Died several hours later.^[44]
July 3, 1969	Unknown male	17	West Germany	Transportation fares	Set himself on fire in Saarbrücken after more than a week of protests. Survived.^[45]
August 21, 1969	Jan Polášek	19	Czechoslovakia	Communist rule in Czechoslovakia	Survived self-immolation in Brno.^[46]

Date	Name	Age	Country	Protesting	Notes and references
January 17, 1970	Regis –	17	France	Nigerian Civil War	^[47]
January 20, 1970	Robert Gerenkens	18	France	"Wars and the follies of men"	Attended the same school in Lille as Regis, the previous self-immolator.^[47]
February 13, 1970	Márton Moyses	28	Romania	Communist rule in Romania	^[9]
April 10, 1970	Rafael Elizalde Mac-Clure	61	Chile	Climate crisis inaction	Writer, activist and translator who set himself on fire near the Eulogio Sánchez Airport.^[48]^[49]
May 6, 1970	Robert Rex Vice	27	United States	Vietnam War and Kent State Shootings	Non-student protester at Wabash College demonstration.^[50] Died later in hospital.
May 10, 1970	George Winne Jr.	23	United States	Vietnam War	Student at the University of California, San Diego. Died the following day.^[51]
June 4, 1970	Thích Nữ Lien Tap	24	South Vietnam		Buddhist nun^[9]^[23]
August 15, 1970	Thich Thien Nhu	21	South Vietnam		Buddhist monk.^[52]
September 19, 1970	Kostas Georgakis	22	Greece	Military rule in Greece	Student at the University of Genoa^{[citation needed]}
September 19, 1970	Joseba Elosegi	54	Spain	Bombing of Guernica in 1937. Independence of the Basque Country.	Survived^[9]
October 2, 1970	unidentified male	–	France	Communist rule in Czechoslovakia	^[53]
November 13, 1970	Jeon Tae-il	22	South Korea	Labor conditions and the government's opposition to reform	^[9]
May 1971	Nguyen Thi Co	–	South Vietnam	Vietnam War	Buddhist nuns^[9]^[23]
May 1971	Thích Nữ Tinh Nhuan	–			Buddhist nuns^[9]^[23]
August 16, 1971	Man; name missing	–			Vietnam War veterans^[9]
August 16, 1971	Nguyen Minh Dang	37			Vietnam War veterans^[9]
October 1971	Thích Nữ Tinh Cuong	–			Buddhist nuns^[9]^[23]
1972	Thích Nữ Dien Han	–			Buddhist nuns^[9]^[23]
May 14, 1972	Romas Kalanta	19	Soviet Union	Communist rule in Lithuania	Inspired largest post-war riots in occupied Lithuania and the USSR and 13 other self-immolations
May 29, 1972	V. Stonys	24	Soviet Union	Communist rule in Lithuania	Immolated himself in Varėna.^[9]
June 6, 1972	Huguette Gaulin	28	Canada		French Canadian novelist who publicly immolated herself in Montreal while screaming "You have destroyed the beauty of the world!"^[54]
September 27, 1972	unidentified male	37	Denmark	Protest against European Common Market and his unemployment	Survived with extensive second-degree burns.^[55]
September 30, 1972	Józef Dolak	26 or 27	Poland	Protest against Communist rule in Poland	Probably followed the example of Jan Palach^[56]
October 7, 1972	Willie B. Phillips	27	United States	Racism against African-Americans	Immolated himself at Atlanta parade. Died in hospital.^[57]
1974	Thích Nữ Du Dieu	–	South Vietnam	Vietnam War	Buddhist nun^[9]^[23]
August 15, 1974	Phan Van Lua	33	South Vietnam	Anti-Communism	Vietnam War veteran discharged with wounds. Immolated himself in front of the National Assembly. Died at scene.^[58]
August 10, 1976	Antanas Kalinauskas	19	Soviet Union	Communist rule in Lithuania	In Soviet Army barracks in Gulbene, Latvia. Died the following day.
August 22, 1976	Oskar Brüsewitz	47	East Germany	Communist repression of religion in East Germany	Lutheran pastor^[59]
February 10, 1977	Alain Escoffier	27	France	Communism	Member of the Party of New Forces, a neo-fascist political party.^{[citation needed]}
September 1, 1977	Leopoldo Aragon		Sweden	Protest against Torrijos–Carter Treaties	A Panamanian national immolated himself in front of the U.S. embassy in Stockholm.^[60]
November 16, 1977	Hartmut Gründler	37	West Germany	Atomic policy^{[citation needed]}
January 21, 1978	Oleksa Mykolajovyč Hirnyk	65	Soviet Union	Communist rule in Ukraine^[56]	Probably followed the example of Jan Palach.
February 8, 1978	Erika Ruppert	24	West Germany	Political protest	Ruppert and Kleinknecht wrote a letter a day before their act in which they explained the reasoning behind their decision, and their affiliation with Ananda Marga. The next morning, they doused themselves with gasoline and Immolated themselves at the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in Berlin.^[61]^[62]
February 8, 1978	Helmut Kleinknecht	28	West Germany	Political protest
May 4, 1978	Andre Kilchinski	41	Israel	Protest against Nazism	Occurred on Holocaust Day. Rescued with slight burns.^[63]
June 14, 1978	Elizabeth Weniger	25	Philippines	Political protest	Swiss-born Elizabeth Weniger immolated herself at Rizal Park in Manila after distributing leaflets explaining her reasons.^[64]^[65]^[66]
June 23, 1978	Musa Mamut	46	Soviet Union	Discrimination against Crimean Tatars in the Soviet residence permission system, which prohibited nearly all Crimean Tatars who were deported in 1944 from returning to their place of birth	Mamut was born and raised Crimea until the NKVD deported all Crimean Tatars to Central Asia in May 1944. He returned to Crimea in 1975 and was later arrested and charged for not having a residence permit to live there, despite being born in the peninsula; the residence permit system was designed to prevent exiled Crimean Tatars from returning to their homeland. Then police came to arrest him on 23 June 1978 Mamut immolated himself rather than being deported again and died 5 days later.^[67]
September 17, 1978	Rolf Günther	41	East Germany	Probably protest against repression of religion in East Germany, maybe also internal church conflicts	Set himself on fire in front of 300 people after revealing a banner that read "finally wake up!"^[68]
October 3, 1978	Lynette Phillips	24	Switzerland	Social protest	Lynette Phillips had previously planned to self-immolate outside the British Houses of Parliament in London, but upon receiving word of this, British authorities deported her. She changed her plan and decided to self-immolate outside the United Nations headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. She protested against "inhumanity, injustice and irrationality prevalent in our society". She died at the scene.^[69]
December 28, 1978	Chiao Shaoying	40	Taiwan	Nationalism	Taken to hospital in poor condition.^[70]

Date	Name	Age	Country	Protesting	Notes and references
March 21, 1980	Walenty Badylak	76	Poland	Katyn massacre	Home Army veteran immolated himself chained to a well in the Main Square, Kraków.^[71]^[72]
March 21, 1981	Per-Axel Arosenius	60	Sweden	Taxes^{[citation needed]}
May 18, 1982	Mahmut Zengin Ferhat Kurtay Eşref Anyık Necmi Öner		Turkey	Detention conditions in Prison	The four were members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party protesting the detention conditions in the Diyarbakır prison after the coup d'état in 1980.^[73]
May 26, 1982	Semra Ertan	25	West Germany	Racism towards Turkish workers in Germany	Writer and poet.^[74]
August 10, 1982	Artin Penik	61	Turkey	ASALA attack at Esenboğa International Airport^{[citation needed]}	Set himself on fire in Taksim Square.
March 5, 1983	Cecil Andrews	37	United States	Unemployment	Was listed in serious condition. His self-immolation was filmed by a television crew.^[75]
November 2, 1983	Sebastián Acevedo	52	Chile	Kidnapping of his children by the Chilean police during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet	After 2 days of searching for his children, Acevedo immolated himself in front of the Cathedral of the Most Holy Conception.^[76]
July 10, 1984	Ruth Christenson	23	United States	Pornography	Survived.^[77] Committed suicide by setting her apartment on fire in 1990.^[78]
February 2, 1985	Mehmet Karahüseyinov	40	Bulgaria	Treatment of Turks in Bulgaria	Immolated himself after Bulgarian government tried to change his name. Survived heavily wounded, died 5 years later.^[79]
March 27, 1985	Unidentified man	50s	South Korea	Protest against government's decision to return Chinese sailors	Survived with minor injuries.^[80]
February 14, 1986	Orland Payne McCafferty	58	United States	Ronald Reagan's policies	Set himself on fire outside the White House. Died a month later.^[81]^[82]
February 25, 1986	Marko Djukic	63	Canada	Trial to deport Andrija Artuković	Croatian/Canadian immolated himself on University Ave. in Toronto across from US Consulate.^[83] Survived for many years afterwards.
March 6, 1987	Pyo Jung-doo	25	South Korea	Opposition to government and parliamentary system	Survived with critical injuries after self-immolating outside American embassy in Seoul.^[84]
April 27, 1987	Unidentified woman	60	Romania	Government's refusal to let her travel to West Germany	Immolated herself outside West German embassy in Bucharest.^[85]
August 31, 1987	Antoine Thurel	56	United States	Religious persecution in Haiti	Cab driver from Haiti. Immolated himself in front of Statehouse in Boston. Died at the scene.^[86]
September 20, 1987	Neusha Farrahi	31		Protest against the Khomeini government	Immolated himself at a protest of around 1,000 people against the Iranian government. Died on October 2.^[87]^[88]
September 10, 1988	Mehrdad Imen	32		Protest against the executions of political prisoners committed by the Khomeini government as well as human rights abuses in Iran	Los Angeles resident originally from Iran. Flew from LA to NYC. Participated in a protest and immolated himself in front of the UN shortly after protest ended. Died the next day.^[89]
March 2, 1989	Liviu Cornel Babeș	47	Romania	Communist rule in Romania	Immolated himself on ski slope. Died 2 hours later.^[90]
March 2, 1989	Vytautas Vičiulis	37	Soviet Union	Communist rule in Lithuania^{[citation needed]}
March 24, 1989	Kailash Pawar		India	To draw attention to plight of Bhopal gas victims and protest public indifference	Original story published in The Hindu, March 26, 1990.^[91]
April 7, 1989	Cheng Nan-jung	41	Taiwan	For freedom of speech and Taiwan independence
May 19, 1989	Chan I-hua	32	Taiwan	For freedom of speech and Taiwan independence	During funeral procession of Cheng Nan-jung.^[92]
May 23, 1989	Karl Koch	23	West Germany	unknown	Controversial whether death by suicide or murder^[93]
October 24, 1989	Shavkat Yarullin	40	Soviet Union	In protest of exile and mistreatment of Crimean Tatars by the government	Immolated himself in front of a government building. Died several hours later.^[94]
December 14, 1989	Seidamet Balji		Soviet Union		While being forced to leave Yalta he doused himself with gasoline and immolated himself. Survived after being extinguished, but said he would do it again if he had to live in exile for longer.^[94]

Date	Name	Age	Country	Protesting	Notes and references
March 21, 1990	Zekiye Alkan		Turkey	Ban of Newroz celebrations	Medical student who immolated himself on Newroz.^[95]^[96]
April 26, 1990	Stanislovas Žemaitis	52	Soviet Union	Communist rule in Lithuania	Protesting Soviet economic blockade of Lithuania. Died the following day in Moscow hospital.^[97]
May 9, 1990	Rimantas Daugintis	55	Soviet Union	Communist rule in Lithuania	Lithuanian sculptor immolated himself on Hungarian–Soviet border. Died a few days later.
June 21, 1990	unidentified male	32	Bulgaria	Alleged election fraud	Initially survived.^[98]
September 19, 1990	Rajiv Goswami	19	India	Reservation in India	Survived^[99]
October 14, 1990	Thanawut Klingchuea	20	Thailand	Government of Chatichai Choonhavan	Ramkhamhaeng University student^[100]
December 9, 1990	Timothy Brown	48	United States	Gulf War	Self-described Vietnam War veteran set himself on fire at an abandoned cannery.^[101]
January 10, 1991	Richard Breeze	38			Took place after an anti-war rally.^[102]
February 18, 1991	Gregory Levey	30			Took place in Amherst Common, Massachusetts.^[103]
April 29, 1991	Park Seung-hee	20	South Korea	Political situation in South Korea	Immolated herself after student demonstrator Kang Kyung-dae was beaten to death by police. She was buried at the May 18th National Cemetery.^[104]^[105]
September 21, 1991	Giorgi Abesadze	35	Georgia	Looming civil war in Georgia	Physician^[106]
March 21, 1992	Rahşan Demirel		Turkey	Treatment of Kurds by Turkey	She immolated herself on Newroz.^[96]
April 6, 1993	Binh Gia Pham	43	United States	Persecution of Buddhists in Vietnam	Binh Gia Pham had five friends tape his self-immolation outside Boston. Died at the scene.^[107]^[108]
April 29, 1993	Graham Bamford	48	United Kingdom	War in Bosnia and Herzegovina	'The British army must not be a guard of honour at a mass funeral. Bosnian babies, children, and womenfolk are waiting for the politicians to do what they know they should – give them military protection.'^[109]
January 27, 1994	Son Ha Hoang	27	Germany	Imminent deportation	Originally from Vietnam, he sought asylum in Germany.^[61]
February 21, 1994	Homa Darabi	54	Iran	Legal obligation under the Islamic Criminal Code (Art. 139) for women to wear the headscarf in public^[110]	Pediatrician, political activist. Died the following day
March 21, 1994	Nilgün Yıldırım and Bedriye Taş		Germany	Repression of Kurdish identity and traditions	They immolated themselves on Newroz, an important festivity for the Kurds^[96]
September 22, 1994	Ulrich Baer		Germany	Pollution	Baer, an environmental official, immolated himself on a trash heap.^[111]
March 9, 1995	unidentified male		United States	"Genocide and human rights violations" in Poland; planned deportation to Poland	Immolated himself in an International Red Cross office.^[112]
April 25, 1995	Reinhold Elstner [de]	75	Germany	"Slander and demonization" of German soldiers after World War II	Wehrmacht veteran. Died in a Munich hospital 12 hours later.^[113]
September 3, 1995	Sabine Kratze	25	Vietnam	Trial of six Buddhist monks^[114]
December 15, 1995	Abdul Raoob	23	India	Killing of the Sri Lankan Tamils	Immolated himself in Trichy, Tamil Nadu over the Killings of Sri Lankan Tamils committed by the Sinhalese-dominated Sri Lanka government and to Protest against India playing the Sri Lanka Cricket team in Chennai.^[115]
October 22, 1996	Kathy Change	46	United States	For directly democratic community-based self-government^{[citation needed]}
January 7, 1998	unknown male	24	Germany	Imminent deportation	A Kurdish man who set himself on fire in Wessel, Germany. He sought asylum there.^[61]
January 13, 1998	Alfredo Ormando	39	Italy	Catholic Church's condemnation of homosexuality^[116]
April 27, 1998	Thupten Ngodup	60	India	Political situation in Tibet	Ex-monk. In protest of police interference with unto-death hunger-strike in Delhi. Died 2 days later in hospital after visit by the Dalai Lama.^[117]^[118]^[119]
February 16, 1999	Necla Coşkun	14	United Kingdom	Arrest of Abdullah Öcalan	Survived^[120]^[121]
February 1999	Zülkuf Yilmaz		Switzerland	Arrest of Abdullah Öcalan	Survived^[122]

Date	Name	Age	Country	Protesting	Notes and references
January 23, 2001	various	–	China	See Tiananmen Square self-immolation incident	^[123]
April 2, 2001	Shahraz Kayani	48	Australia	Government refusal to grant entry to his wife and daughters	Pakistani refugee^[124]
December 1, 2001	Eduardo Miño	50	Chile	Pizarreño asbestos disaster	^[125]
November 15, 2002	Milos Redzepovic	34	Germany	Planned deportation of his family to Serbia	Doused himself in gasoline and immolated himself inside the town hall of Syke. Died the following day.^[126]
March 6, 2003	Zdeněk Adamec	19	Czech Republic	Iraq War	Immolated himself in Prague. Died at the scene.^[127]^[128]
July 21, 2004	Mordehai (Hamimo) Cohen	30	Israel	Rejection of work license	Immolated himself during a City Hall assembly.^[129]
October 5, 2004	Maggy Mufu Delvaux	44	Luxembourg	Protest against institutionalized racism	Immolated herself in a public place^[130] Money problems resulting from the Luxembourgish government denying her family the authorisation to open a garage despite meeting all the legal requirements and suing the State for discrimination have driven the woman to desperately plead her case publicly after writing an open letter to the Prime Minister warning him of what she was about to do. However no help was sent to her to prevent her immolation.^[131]
August 17, 2005	Yelena Businov	54	Israel	Protest against the Israeli disengagement from Gaza	^[132]
August 31, 2005	Baruch Ben Menahem	21	Israel	Protest against the Israeli disengagement from Gaza	^[133]
March 28, 2006	Eleftheria Fourtoulaki		Greece	Treatment of Kurds in Turkey	^[134]
June 11, 2006	Pravin Joshi	30	India	Screening of Fanaa	Died 9 days later.^[135]
October 31, 2006	Roland Weisselberg	73	Germany	Spread of Islam	Former Lutheran pastor immolated himself in a former monastery in Erfurt. Died the following day.^[136]
November 3, 2006	Malachi Ritscher	52	United States	War in Iraq	Died at the scene.^[137]
November 23, 2006	Lhakpa Tsering	23	India	Political situation in Tibet	Survived^[138]
March 7, 2007	Uddhav Bhandari	40	United Kingdom	Asylum policy	Nepali asylum seeker^[139]
April 1, 2007	Heo Se-uk	54	South Korea	South Korea – United States Free Trade Agreement	^[140]
October 1, 2008	Ramiro Guillén Tapia	65	Mexico	Protest against the dispossession and destruction of lands by the local government in the city of Xalapa	Immolated himself after being informed that the governor had canceled discussions to end the agrarian conflict.^[141]
January 29, 2009	Kumar Muthukumar	26	India	Killing of the Sri Lankan Tamils	Inspired several other self-immolations^[142]
February 12, 2009	Murugathasan Varnakulasingham	26	Switzerland	Killing of the Sri Lankan Tamils	Inspired several other self-immolations^[143]
February 27, 2009	Tapey	mid-20s	China	Political situation in Tibet	Monk, Kirti Monastery, Ngaba. Shot by Chinese police while on fire, and then taken away by them. Current status unknown.^[144]
November 13, 2009	Tang Fu-zhen	47	China	Forced demolition of her home	Died 16 days later.^[145]
December 3, 2009	Kasoju Srikanth Chary	24	India	For statehood of Telangana	Died the following day.^[146]

List of political self-immolations

Background

List

1940s

1950s

1960s

1970s

1980s

1990s

2000s

2010s

2020s

See also

References

External links

Notes

Related Articles

Date	Name	Age	Country	Protesting	Notes and references
February 7, 2020	Adem Yarıcı	42	Turkey	Unemployment in Turkey	42-year-old unemployed man, father of two, set himself on fire in front of Hatay governor's office. Witnesses said that he shouted "My kids are hungry!" before setting himself ablaze. He died on the same day. The governor claimed that Yarıcı divorced from his wife a while ago, had mental illness and had attempted to immolate himself before.^[397]^[398]^[399]
June 16, 2020	Unknown	48	Poland	Unknown; reportedly said there is "no justice" to police at the scene	A 48-year-old man set himself on fire shortly after talking to journalists outside of the Sejm building in Warsaw, Poland.^[400]
July 27, 2020	Arie den Dekker	54	Netherlands	Murder witness, removed from family, turned homeless	Den Dekker had witnessed a murder in 2018. Following this, his house was torched multiple times and he was put into a witness protection program. Unable to be with his family and having his pleas ignored by the municipality and the government, Den Dekker protested in front of Oss' city hall multiple times, throwing dead fish inside, dousing himself in cow feces and committing other acts of despair on multiple occasions. On July 27 he committed suicide by self-immolation in front of the city hall.^[401]
August 3, 2020	Yavuz Polat	46	Turkey	Economic issues	A 47-year-old street vendor from Erzincan set himself on fire after the police wanted him to remove his corn stall. He died on August 27.^[402]^[403]
August 14, 2020	Fikret Güven		Turkey	Economic issues	A tea maker set himself on fire in front of the Bursa governorship after the police closed the roads to his shop.^[404]^[405]
September 18, 2020	Syarhei Radchenya	36	Belarus	Fraudulent election and follow-on police abuse and brutality against protests in Belarus.	36-year-old Syarhei Radchenya set himself on fire in Smalavichy, Belarus, near the local police department. According to the press service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Syarhei poured gasoline over himself from a canister and set it on fire after which an employee ran out of the district department building and put out the fire. Syarhei was hospitalized in critical condition with burns on 84% of his body surface, including the respiratory tract. He died on September 25, 2020, as a result of his injuries.^[406]
October 2, 2020	Irina Slavina	47	Russia	Journalist; her apartment was searched the day before by the police alleging her ties to the Open Russia group	Russian journalist Irina Slavina set herself on fire in front of the Interior Ministry office in Nizhniy Novgorod. She died there of the resulting burns.^[407]^[408]
November 2, 2020	Leroy Archie Ponpon		Liberia	Chief Justice refusing months of salary for workers	Led several protests prior to self-immolation date. Survived.^[409]
January 11, 2021	Liu Jin	48	China	Employers refusing to make payment as well as fair treatment for delivery workers	Delivery worker in Taizhou. Asked for payment from employers but was denied. Set fire shortly afterwards. Died soon after.^[410]
February 12, 2021	Halil S.	49	Germany	Against the detention conditions of Abdullah Öcalan	He set himself on fire in front of the Landtag in Dresden. Died soon after.^[411]^[412]
April 12, 2021	Itzik Saidyan [he]	26	Israel	Government treatment of disabled veterans	He set himself on fire in front of the Defense Ministry's rehabilitation department offices in Petah Tikva that handles the rehabilitation of injured soldiers,^[413] two days before the annual Memorial Day. Saidyan fought in the 2014 war in Gaza, Operation Protective Edge, and has post-traumatic stress disorder.^[414]
May 18, 2021	Behzad Mahmoudi	25	Iraq	Poor treatment and living conditions of refugees	Asylum seeker from Iran. Immolated himself in front of journalists. Died on May 23, 2021.^[415]
September 14, 2021	Ella Nik Bayan	40	Germany	Transphobia and treatment of immigrants	40 year old trans woman who burned herself publicly in Alexanderplatz square, Berlin. Ella had immigrated from Iran years earlier.^[416]
January 1, 2022	Unknown		Australia	Vaccine ID and mandates	He set himself on fire on Church St. in Richmond, Victoria, sustaining life-threatening injuries. The man was stopped by paramedics and police.^[417]^[418]
February 25, 2022	Tsewang Norbu	25	China	Political situation in Tibet	Popular Tibetan singer from Nangchu. Immolated himself in front of the Potala Palace in Lhasa. Died in the hospital a few days later.
March 27, 2022	Taphun	81			Nomad from Meruma nomadic village in Ngaba. Immolated himself in front of a police station near Kirti Monastery. Died a few hours after.^[419]^[420]
March 30, 2022	Tsering Samdup				Immolated himself near a monastery in Kyegudo. Status unknown.^[421]
April 22, 2022	Wynn Bruce	54	United States	Protesting climate change inaction^[422]	Man from Boulder, Colorado immolated himself in front of the Supreme Court Building in Washington, D.C. Died from injuries.^[423] Described himself as a Buddhist and climate activist.^[422]
May 18, 2022	Krishanpal	52	India	Police inaction	He set himself ablaze outside an SSP office alleging police inaction over a complaint he filed against some people for destroying his crops.^[424]^[425]
June, 2022	Unknown monk		China	Political situation in Tibet	Monk from Kanhlo prefecture in Gansu. Immolated himself in front of a portrait of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Died at the scene.^[426]
September 21, 2022	Unknown	70s	Japan	Funeral of Shinzo Abe	A man in his 70s set himself on fire near the Prime Minister's Official Residence in protest of the decision to hold an official state funeral for former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.^[427]
January 24, 2023	Prem Prasad Acharya	37	Nepal	Corruption in Nepal as well as his unsuccessful business career	Died 3 days after.^[428]
January 31, 2023	Unknown	58	Brazil	Supreme Federal Court	The 58-year-old native of Botucatu, São Paulo set fire to his own body in the central median of the Esplanade of the Ministries and shouted against Alexandre de Moraes, saying "morte ao Xandão" (lit. 'death to Xandão'). Alongside the man, papers with photos of Johann Georg Elser, Nelson Mandela, and Claus von Stauffenberg were found; all images were accompanied by the phrase "perdeu, mané [pt]" (lit. 'you lost, dude'), previously used by Luís Roberto Barroso.^[429] He remained hospitalized for two days and died on 2 February.^[430]
March 1, 2023	Chet Bohrer	42	United States	Bullying and mental health	42 year old resident of Salt Lake City, Utah set himself on fire at Bancroft Way and Telegraph Ave on the UC Berkeley campus. He had no known affiliation with the university. Bohrer died in the hospital from his injuries days later. He claimed to have been bullied and spied on by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.^[431]
March 27, 2023	Ahmed Jaouad	61	Morocco	Precarity, insufficient pension fund	A Moroccan playwright died six days after setting himself on fire following a failed hunger strike in hopes of raising his pension fund from his thirty years of service at the Moroccan Ministry of Culture which was insufficient to provide for his family.^[432]^[433] Jaouad's wife and children were awarded financial compensation by the ministry after his death.^[434]^[433]
April 13, 2023	Nizar Issaoui	35	Tunisia	Human rights in Tunisia, Anti-police sentiment	A local Tunisian footballer died after setting himself on fire in what he said was a protest against Tunisia's "police state".^[435] During his funeral, demonstrators started throwing stones at police, who retaliated with tear gas.^[436]
May 1, 2023	Yang Hoe-dong		South Korea	Union violations as well as charges he received as a Union activist	Popular labour rights activist. Immolated himself in front of a courthouse, deceased.^[437]
May 24, 2023	DeAndre Gordon		United States	Protest of racism and corruption at Red Onion prison	Prisoner at the Red Onion prison in Virginia. Set a fire in his cell due to mistreatment and beatings he received from prison guards. Survived.^[438]
May 21, 2023	Karl-Udson Azor	30	Haiti	Unknown	Immolated himself in front of the Vertieres Monument. Died at the scene with Haitian flag next to him.^[439]
August 1, 2023	Bar Kalaf	33	Israel	The Defense Ministry denying him disability status	Kalaf served in the Israeli Defense Force from 2008 to 2011 and saw combat in Operation Protective Edge as a reservist, where he claimed he developed post-traumatic stress disorder. The Defense Ministry rejected his application for disability status, stating he had a mental disorder unrelated to his military duties. Kalaf immolated himself in his home and afterwards was rushed to Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan where he died.^[440]^[441]
August 17, 2023	Robert Gituhu	28	Kenya	Unemployment and Poverty in Kenya and high cost in food	Graduated with Engineer degree. Climbed statue in Mobasa and immolated himself. Died several hours after 80% burns on body.^[442]
November 8, 2023	Unknown male		DRC	Protest of the genocide in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).	Congolese man set himself on fire to protest the ongoing genocide in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The video, which was posted on Twitter on November 8, 2023, shows the man, who has not been identified, standing in front of a crowd in Kinshasa, the capital of the DRC, holding a sign that reads "Stop the genocide in Congo".^[443]
April 19, 2024	Maxwell Azzarello	37	United States	Protest against the US Government	A 37-year-old man from St. Augustine, Florida immolated himself outside of the New York courthouse where jurors were being chosen for the New York State criminal trial of former U.S. President Donald Trump^[444]^[445]^[446]^[447] after posting an anti-government manifesto online.^[448]
December 1, 2023	Unknown female	27		Protest against United States support for Israel in the Gaza war	Protester immolated herself outside the Israeli Consulate in Atlanta, Georgia; following what officials described as "an act of extreme political protest", a Palestinian national flag was recovered at the scene.^[449]^[450]^[451]
February 25, 2024	Aaron Bushnell	25			The active-duty US Airman immolated himself outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C. He was taken to a hospital where he succumbed to his injuries.^[452]^[453]
September 11, 2024	Matt Nelson	45			A protestor immolated himself outside the Boston, Massachusetts Israeli Consulate. He was taken to Massachusetts General Hospital afterwards. Died in hospital 4 days later.^[454]^[455]^[456]
October 5, 2024	Samuel Mena Jr	29			Photojournalist for KTVK from Phoenix, Arizona. Attempted self-immolation in Washington DC in front of the White House. Set arm on fire but flames quickly doused by protesters. Taken to hospital with burns on arms.^[457]^[458]
April 9, 2024	Yassine Selmi	22	Tunisia	Protest against police	Construction worker. Resolved a fight between the police and 2 unidentified people where police threatened him with arrest. He set himself on fire over the police threats. Died 2 days later.^[459]
May 1, 2024	Ruslan Palitsyn	24	Russia	Protest of army enlistment during the Russian invasion of Ukraine	Ruslan was an actor. He lit himself on fire outside a Russian military registration in St Petersburg where he suffered 90% burns. He died the day after.^[460]
June 11, 2024	Darko Štimac	57	Croatia	Inability to exercise his rights in court and failure of Andrej Plenković to hear his concerns	Croatian Army veteran set himself on fire in St. Mark's Square and died in hospital.^[461]
July 26, 2024	Vladimir Arsenyev	74	Russia	Unknown	President of Volna Central Research Institute for Russia's Defense Ministry. Walked to Lenin Mausoleum in the center of Red Square and set himself on fire. Suffered minor burns and survived.^[462]
August 23, 2024	Demetrius Wallace	27	United States	Protest against corruption and illegal retaliation from prison staff	Prisoner at Red Onion prison. Filed a lawsuit on the prison after he was attacked by prison officials where they retaliated. He soon set himself on fire in his cell receiving burns on his foot. Survived.^[438]
August 28, 2024	Mano Yogalingam	23	Australia	Protest on asylum seeker bridging visas.	Yogalingam was a Tamil asylum seeker who immolated himself in Melbourne's south-east after attending a majority of the protests being held outside the Department of Home Affairs.^[463]
September 15, 2024	Ekong Eshiet	28	United States	Protest against religious violations isolation, racism, and brutality against prison inmates	Ekong and Trayvon were both inmates at Red Onion State Prison in Virginia. On September 15, both men set themselves on fire in solitary confinement making these demands and suffered third degree burns and were transferred to University of Virginia. Ekong appeared on a PrisonRadio show where he revealed his reasons why he immolated himself and that he had begun a hunger strike but other prison inmates also began a hunger strike.^[464]
September 15, 2024	Trayvon Brown		United States
October 18, 2024	Unknown	56	Chile	Protest against the government for a case of unlawful coercion against him	A 56-year-old man attempted self-immolation outside of the Palacio de los Tribunales de Justicia de Santiago, Chile. Flames where quickly doused by Carabineros, and the man was taken to hospital with burns on his neck.^[465]
December 31, 2024	Sunil	35	India	Police harassment	Rickshaw driver who was harassed by police officers. Burned himself at his home. Died 7 days later.^[466]
January 3, 2025	Raju Patel	25		Protest of hazardous waste to Pithampur for incineration	Both men were present at a protest with dozens of other people. They were seen dousing themselves with an accelerant and lighting themselves on fire. Both are in the hospitals with burn injuries.^[467]
January 3, 2025	Rajkumar Raghuvanshi	27		Protest of hazardous waste to Pithampur for incineration
January 15, 2025	Unknown man	60s	South Korea	Impeachment of Yoon Suk Yeol	Set himself on fire near South Korea's corruption investigation office.^[468] Later died of his injuries.^[469]
January 20, 2025	Thairie Ritchie	29	United States	Political protest	Civil rights activist from Santa Cruz. Set himself on fire on the Black Lives Matter mural at Santa Cruz City Hall. Survived, but current condition unconfirmed.^[470]^[471]
February 15, 2025	Sunil Kumar Mishra		India	Firing from bank and abuse	Former bank employee for IDFC in Varanasi. Fired from the bank where he soon doused himself and recorded a video revealing the extreme stress, mental breakdown, and suicides. Soon set himself ablaze with flames extinguished quickly by bystanders. Survived.^[472]
February 25, 2025	Mohammad Asif Javed Jutt	48	Pakistan	Illegal practices from his former employer, attempt to dismantle workers union, workers rights	Worked at Nestle's Kabirwala plant for 16 years. Attempted to unionize for better labor conditions but was fired. Fought for 9 years in court, immolated himself inside the premises of Pakistan's Lahore High Court. Died days later. Left behind a wife and 4 children.^[473]
March 7, 2025	Unknown man	79	South Korea	Impeachment of Yoon Suk Yeol	Supporter of Yoon Suk Yeol. Carried pamphlets denouncing opposition bloc and supporting Yoon. Immolated himself near Seoul City Hall around noon. He died shortly after.^[469]
September 13, 2025	Regina Ann Santos-Aviles	35	USA	Tony Gonzales	On February 17, 2026, the San Antonio Express-News published text messages allegedly from Regina Ann Santos-Aviles, a political aide to Gonzales, to another staffer.^[474] In the text messages from April 2025, Santos-Aviles wrote that she had an affair with Gonzales in 2024.^[475] According to her husband, Adrian Aviles, Santos-Aviles confessed to the affair on May 29, 2024, one day after Gonzales's victory in the 2024 Republican primary.^[474] Aviles told media outlets that his wife had a sexual relationship with Gonzales for two to three weeks before he caught her, and she admitted the affair. Following this, Aviles asked his wife to quit her job, but she refused. Aviles then confronted Gonzales and his campaign about the affair, which led to Santos-Aviles being treated like a black sheep at work. The couple later separated, and Santos-Aviles fell into depression. Aviles stated that she threatened to kill herself in August 2025 before her suicide, but police arrived and found "nothing of concern." On September 13, 2025, Santos-Aviles poured gasoline on herself, outside of her home in Uvalde, and self-immolated. She died the following day at the Brooke Army Medical Center. Her death was ruled a suicide by the Bexar County medical examiner in November 2025. Police stated that video footage showed that Santos-Aviles was home alone at the time of the incident, and no foul play was suspected.^[475]
November 16, 2025	Bilal Ahmad Wani	50s	India	Arrest of relatives for 2025 Delhi car explosion	Died the following day.^[476]
December 15, 2025	Prakash Sawant		India	Legal issues	Suffered 50% burns after self-immolating outside the Bombay High Court.^[477]

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