Human Rights Update and Archives

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15 May 1997

Sentencing of three involved in Panchen Lama issue  [ read ]

Chimney torture for monk activist  [ read ]

Profile: Chadrel Rinpoche - the man who found the XI Panchen Lama  [ read ]

Painter dies in prison  [ read ]

Appeal letter from Drapchi political prisoners  [ read ]

Panchen Lama: a chidlhood lost  [ read ]

Results of Panchen Lama art competition  [ read ]

Sentencing of three involved in Panchen Lama issue

Almost two years after his disappearance following the Dalai Lama's proclamation of the 11th Panchen Lama, the head of the Chinese Search Committee for the Reincarnation - 58 year old Chadrel Rinpoche - has been charged with "plotting to split the country" and "leaking state secrets" and sentenced to six year imprisonment by Chinese authorities. Champa Chung-la, a 50 year old monk, and Samdrup, a 30 year old business man, were also sentenced for their involvement in the Panchen Lama reincarnation.

Chadrel Rinpoche was the director of the Democratic Management Committee of the Tashilhunpo Monastery (the traditional seat of the Panchen Lama) and head of the official Chinese search for the reincarnation.

He angered Chinese authorities in 1995 when he rejected China's plan to choose their own Panchen Lama. Following the Dalai Lama's proclamation of the reincarnate on 14 May 1995, he was arrested on 17 or 18 May 1995 under suspicion of having communicated with the Dalai Lama in exile regarding the choice of the reincarnation.

For the last two years he has been held incommunicado by Chinese authorities and on 21 April 1997 Chadrel Rinpoche (Ch: Qazha Qamba Chilai) was sentenced by the Intermediate People's Court of Shigatse (Ch: Xigaze) Prefecture in the "TAR" to a total of six years.

Two other Tibetans involved in the reincarnation controversy, Champa Chung-la and Samdrup, were sentenced on the same day. Champa Chung-la was charged with disclosing state secrets and conspiring to split the country. He was sentenced to four years imprisonment and two years subsequent deprivation of political rights. Samdrup was charged with conspiring to split the country and sentenced to a two year prison term and subsequent deprivation of political rights for one year.

Champa Chung-la (Ch: Qamba Qung), a 50-year-old monk from Namring County under the Shigatse region, was Secretary of the Search Committee and Deputy Director of the Administration of Dechen Kelsang Potrang (Ch: Deqen Gaisang Pozhang), the Panchen Lama's residence in Shigatse.

On 11 July 1995, the Chinese authorities forcibly returned Champa Chung-la from Beijing to Tashilhunpo with the intention of making him confess to having disclosed state secrets to the Dalai Lama. At the Shigatse Regional Political Consultative Conference (PCC), the Chinese called all regional administrators of Shigatse and a group of Tashilhunpo monks. Champa Chung-la, forced to speak, declared that the issue of the Panchen Lama's reincarnation was purely a religious matter and said that he had no intention of interfering in China's state policy.

When the meeting closed, Champa Chung-la was immediately handcuffed and returned to Beijing. Since that time his whereabouts remained unknown and the PRC told the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions in May 1996 that Champ Chung-la and Samdrup were being held under investigation "on suspicion of revealing important state secrets".

Samdrup (Ch: Samzhub), aged around 30 years, comes from Panam County of Shigatse region. In 1987, he completed the Shigatse Teacher's College and worked in the main office of the large Gangjian Corporation in Dechen Potrang, Shigatse. In 1995 he became the general manager of the Dram (Ch: Cham) branch office of the Gangjian Corporation, and was arrested sometime in May 1995 by Shigatse PSB (Public Security Bureau).

Chimney torture for monk activist

Lobsang Dhargay spent two and a half years in prison where he was subjected to daily abuse. The worst torture he suffered was being handcuffed for a whole day to a blazing hot chimney, left to burn and blister without food or water.

Lobsang Dhargay, aged 31, is from the Golok county of Amdo (Ch: Qinghai) province. He came from a nomadic family of the Chuva village near Ragya Monastery and joined the monastery in 1989 aged 19.
The enthronement ceremony of the sixth reincarnation of the Shingsa Rinpoche Tenzin Choekey Gyaltsen (head of the monastery) was held on 15 November 1992. Thousands gathered to commemorate the auspicious day. During the ceremony, Lobsang and his friends, Lobsang Palden and Yeshi Gyaltsen, both 30 years old, and Ngawang Phuntsok, 25 years old, distributed leaflets reading "Free Tibet" and "Chinese Quit Tibet".

At the same time they distributed printed paper copies of the Tibetan national flag and hoisted a flag stitched from cloth on the top of the monastery. Lobsang reported that they had secretly printed more than 40,000 copies of the leaflet on wooden block in the monastery.

The next dawn PSB and People's Armed Police officials came to the monastery. When they saw the forbidden flag they immediately took it down and collected all of the leaflets from the people. They then began arresting monks from the monastery. By 25 November 1992, a total of 20 had been arrested. While in detention, the monks were severely beaten while being interrogated as to the names of those who had initiated the movement. An announcement was made, offering 300 yuan as a reward to anyone who provided information about the main "culprits". After 10 days of intense interrogation, the Chinese authorities were finally given the name and picture of Lobsang Dhargay.

On the night of 25 November 1992, Lobsang Dhargay was arrested while hiding out in Gyugo township and taken back to the monastery. He was shocked when he saw his picture in the hands of police but refused to acknowledge the pictured monk.

After he ignored all of their questions, the police dragged Lobsang to his room. There, from under a wooden box, they took out the wooden block carved with the forbidden leaflet. Eight armed police then handcuffed Lobsang and took him to the van. On the way he was able to leave a hurried message with two monks for his two friends to escape before the Chinese authorities discovered them.

Lobsang Dhargay was detained in Golok prison, Golok county's largest prison, for one year without trial. Every day in prison he was interrogated and every day the interrogations were accompanied by torture: he was beaten with sticks, kicked, punched, and shocked all over the body with an electric cattle prod. Despite this daily abuse, Lobsang Dhargay described such methods as the more lenient punishments. The worst torture he endured while in Golok Prison was when he was handcuffed with his arms around a hot chimney and left there for a whole day without food or water. The scorching heat of the chimney resulted in blisters all over his body. Lobsang said that there was water running from the blisters and that his wounds were stinging painfully from heavy perspiration. At night, when the prison guard finally came to release his cuffs, his boots were completely filled with water from the sweat of his body.

When Lobsang Dhargay continued his refusal to "confess", the authorities charged him with "spreading counter-revolutionary propaganda and incitement". He was sentenced to five years imprisonment, but was released early on 25 May 1995.

It was only afterwards that Lobsang came to know the reason for his early release. His relatives had given goods worth 50,000 Chinese yuan (around US$ 6150) to the prison guards including yak, sheep and a large amount of Cordyheps Sinensis (Tibetan medical plant). After his release Lobsang Dhargay was taken to stay in the Gyugo township (70 km from Ragya) where he could be kept under vigilance On 2 April 1997 Lobsang Dhargay escaped with Shingsa Rinpoche. He had to pay 8000 yuan to Chinese police at Nagchu, just before the Nepalese border, and another 10,000 yuan to cross the border into Nepal. On 28 April 1997 he reached Dharamsala.

His friends, Yeshi Gyaltsen and Lobsang Palden, fled the monastery the night of 25 November 1992 having received Lobsang's warning and now study in Sera Monastery in south India. Ragya Monastery is regarded as the "problematic monastery" in the Chinese Qinghai Region because of its independence activities. Chinese authorities have established a special PSB branch to keep a watch on the monastery. Visiting scholars are forbidden and students are restricted from pursuing further studies outside Ragya.

Updated Gaden arrest list:

On 9 May 1996, 17 monks were arrested and on 30 August three more monks were arrested. In total, 62 monks and one layman were arrested. Of these, eight monks were released in the first week of July and are now again in Gaden Monastery. The 23 monks who were released from the prison on 30 August were subsequently expelled from the monastery

There are reportedly 32 monks still in prison, as listed below. The sources are not able to remember all names and thus this list is incomplete.

Profile: Chadrel Rinpoche - the man who found the XI Panchen Lama

Almost two years after his disappearance, Chadrel Rinpoche, the abbot of the Tashilhunpo Monastery and also the head of the Search Committee for the reincarnation of the 11th Panchen Lama was sentenced to six years imprisonment and three years deprivation of political rights. A close disciple of the 10th Panchen Lama, Chadrel Rinpoche was appointed the head of the Search Committee by the Chinese Government, but was subsequently charged with "plotting to split the country" and "leaking state secrets" and sentenced on 21 April 1997.

Rinpoche, popularly known as Chadrel Rinpoche, was born in 1939 in a place 340 km west of Lhasa in the Namling county of the Shigatse region. In 1954, at the age of 15, he joined the Tashilhunpo Monastery located in Shigatse, southwest of Lhasa.

Chadrel Rinpoche's ability in religious study made him a close disciple of the 10th Panchen Lama. In 1962 the Panchen Lama sent Chadrel Rinpoche to study for one year at Lhasa Shol School and then for four years in Beijing before returning to Tashilhunpo. During the Cultural Revolution Chadrel Rinpoche was forced to work in a labour camp.

On 19 August 1989, Chadrel Rinpoche was appointed by the People's Republic of China (PRC) government as the head of the Search Committee for the 11th reincarnation of the Panchen Lama. From June 1994 the Chinese authorities reportedly attempted to replace Chadrel Rinpoche with Sangchen Lobsang Gyaltsen, a noted Chinese Communist Party supporter.

On the 28th day of the 12th month of the Tibetan lunar calendar (around February 1995), Chadrel Rinpoche and Champa Chung-la (Secretary of the Search Committee), left Tashilhunpo Monastery and took a flight from Lhoka Gonkar Airport to Beijing. There they attended the meeting of the 3rd General Meeting of the 8th CPPCC (Chinese People's Political Consultative Committee).

This meeting, commencing on 4 March 1995, would ordinarily last for ten days but on this occasion it was extended after Chadrel Rinpoche refused to accept China's plan to instate its own choice of Panchen Lama. At the meeting's end Chadrel Rinpoche was reportedly harassed and detained virtually under house arrest.

On 14 May 1995, the Dalai Lama officially proclaimed Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, a six-year old boy in Tibet's northern region of Nagchu, as the next Panchen Lama. On that day Chadrel Rinpoche managed to leave Beijing enroute to Tibet, but, when the PRC government heard of the Dalai Lama's announcement, they arrested Chadrel Rinpoche on 17 or 18 May in Chengdu and took him back to Beijing. There he was held incommunicado under house arrest, suspected of having communicated with the Dalai Lama in exile regarding the choice of the reincarnation.

On 14 July 1995 the local Religious Affairs Bureau in Shigatse issued a formal order removing Chadrel Rinpoche and other leading lamas of Tashilhunpo Monastery from their posts. Eight new pro-Chinese leaders were appointed as the new administrators of the monastery, including Sangchen Lobsang Gyaltsen as the new head.

On 22 May 1996, Chadrel Rinpoche was stripped of his membership of the Sixth 'Tibet Autonomous Region' ('TAR') Chinese People's Political Consultative Committee (CPPCC) and removed from his position as Vice-Chairman because he "went against the fundamental stand of the nation and lost his political direction". On 24 May 1996, Radio Lhasa announced that "In doing this, we have purged the CPPCC of bad elements and have made it clean ...".

In September 1995 the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention referred the cases of 48 persons detained for their involvement in the case of the reincarnated Panchen Lama, including Chadrel Rinpoche, to the PRC. The reply, when finally received in May 1996, claimed that China had "scrupulously adhered to the sentiments of the Tibetan people and the religious rites of Tibetan Buddhism in their choice of Panchen Lama".

With regard to Chadrel Rinpoche, the PRC stated that, after leaving Beijing in mid-May 1995 to return to Tibet, he had "suddenly been taken ill and had to be hospitalised. Considering the fragile state of his health, the Managing Committee of the Tashilhunpo Monastery thought it best to relieve him of his function as Administrator. He is at present under medical care."

On 21 April 1997, almost two years after his disappearance, Chadrel Jampa Trinlay Chadrel Rinpoche was sentenced by the Intermediate People's Court of Shigatse (Ch: Xigaze) Prefecture in the "TAR" to four years imprisonment and three years subsequent deprivation of political rights for "plotting to split the country" and three years in prison for "leaking state secrets". The total sentence was subsequently reduced to six years imprisonment and three years deprivation of political rights.

Chadrel Rinpoche allegedly "confessed" to these charges and refused legal representation yet, quoting as the reason the involvement of 'state secrets', Chinese authorities closed his trial to the public. We call on the People's Republic of China to adhere to international standards of due process in allowing Chadrel Rinpoche legal representation and the right to appeal and to provide humane conditions of detention including visits by family and friends.

If you would like to help, please contact TCHRD.

Painter dies in prison

Kalsang Dawa, a 29-year-old painter from Phenpo, one of the more than 1000 political prisoners in Tibet, has died mysteriously, while serving his prison term. According to his close friend, Kalsang died in October 1995 in Sangyip Prison.

The prison officials reported to his mother Tenzin, aged 50, that Kalsang died in hospital as a result of a complicated old disease. However his friends and relatives report that he was totally fit and had no health problems whatsoever. They believe that Kalsang Dawa was severely tortured and received harsh treatment in prison which could have been the reason for his death. As compensation the prison authorities paid his mother 10,000 Chinese yuan (US$1250)

Kalsang Dawa was first arrested in 1979 when he was just 13 years old. He had reportedly opposed the Chinese Commune System by writing insults on a piece of paper which was seen by Chinese Officials and was imprisoned for one year and a half.

He was arrested again in late April 1993 after forbidden Tibetan national flags, cassettes and other materials on Tibet were found in his possession during a raid.

Appeal letter from Drapchi political prisoners

The only prison in Tibet acknowledged by the Chinese is the "TAR" prison no. 1, more commonly known as Drapchi Prison, located in Lhasa. Currently there are 253 political prisoners, ranging in age from 15 to 70 and with prison terms ranging from 1 year to 19 years.

The following letter (translated from Tibetan) was, miraculously, able to escape the intense security of Drapchi prison authorities. The prisoners who wrote the letter have risked life-threatening torture and arbitrary sentence extensions by daring to speak out about the prison conditions in Drapchi. Their words are a testimony of the daily suffering of those who continue to struggle for the rights of Tibetan people.

The subject of Human Rights has been widely recognised by the well informed people of this world since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Countries have drafted articles to protect and promote the values of human rights yet some countries continue to disrespect these basic human values.

The UN Commission on Human Rights, Amnesty International, Red Cross Organisation, nations, non-governmental organisations and some interested individuals have earnestly appealed for the United Nations to oversee the brutal suppression of one country by another. Nevertheless the UN has not been able to take strict measures to protect the ongoing human rights violations.

We want to single out the fact that the Chinese have pretended to respect human rights in China and Tibet before international representatives. Being signatories to this declaration, China continues to violate the basic and fundamental freedoms of the Tibetan people. They greedily entered through our eastern border in 1949 and finally occupied Tibet by force in 1959.

Since the Chinese occupation of Tibet, the land and the people of Tibet has been destroyed; His Holiness the Dalai Lama, to whom the Tibetan people take refuge for this and the next lives has been compelled to leave his country and his people. There were unaccountable cases of Tibetans slaughtered or injured, and families torn apart. These facts are clearly known to the world.

During the Cultural Revolution, the Chinese imprisoned many learned Buddhist nuns and monks, destroyed large numbers of monasteries, burned all religious texts and scriptures, sterilised Tibetan women and carried out countless brutal actions aimed at eliminating the religion and culture of the Tibetan people.

Under the Chinese policy of "liberalisation", the monks were allowed to stay in the monasteries but were deprived of the study of religious texts. Chinese authorities claim that there is religious freedom in Tibet, but basic requirements for admission to monasteries and nunneries have been intensified. Even when monks are allowed admission to the monasteries, they are forced to work on renovating monasteries destroyed during the Cultural Revolution. The Chinese take away all the money donated to the monasteries by local people.

In order to indoctrinate young Tibetans the Chinese do not give them the opportunity to study Tibetan language and the unique culture related to Tibetan Buddhism, described by the Chinese as "blind faith" and "backward". Chinese constantly urge the people to be firm and stable in communist beliefs.

In addition, all the natural resources from various parts of Tibet are being exploited and taken to China. Shameful and demoralising activities are being encouraged inside Tibet.

According to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and on behalf of the six million Tibetans, His Holiness the Dalai Lama described the critical condition of the Tibetan people before the United Nations and to many other nations including the United States and requested urgent action. In 1987 in particular His Holiness the Dalai Lama proposed a five-point peace plan with the hope of beginning peaceful negotiations with China. The Chinese government rejected this proposal and condemned His Holiness. This is unbearable to us and we are unable to remain silent.

Since 1959 and the brutal occupation and colonisation of the Chinese regime, the Tibetan people have been roused to call for their freedom and demonstrate against the brutal Chinese suppression. This resulted in the death of 1.2 million Tibetans and the ongoing imprisonment of Tibetans still today. However the truth will last forever.

From 27 September 1987,Tibetan people once again staged a peaceful demonstration against China. Led by monks and nuns, hundreds of Tibetans joined the uprising to demonstrate their opposition to Chinese rule in Tibet. In the clamp-down of successive demonstrations, the Chinese army opened fire,killing and critically wounding many on the spot and imprisoning thousands of unarmed demonstrators. The Chinese authorities forced the detainees to confess under harsh interrogation.

In Tibet torture is the only method of interrogating. In prison, cruel and degrading methods of torture are inflicted to extract confessions. These include: deprivation of food, water, and air; confinement in a freeze room; setting guard dogs onto prisoners and the use of electric cattle prods.

In some cases prisoners are charged as 'criminals' and administrative detention is imposed by local authorities without supervision by an independent judiciary. The legal procedure established by the Chinese authorities is regarded as the highest authority, thus the Tibetan people have no right to appeal before the court.

After imprisonment, political prisoners are detained incommunicado. They are kept under strict vigilance by special guards sent by the Chinese authorities and there are limits placed on their visitation rights. Only a single member of a political prisoner's family is allowed to visit once a month, while the other prisoners have no limit on their visitation rights. Political prisoners are frequently prohibited from receiving rations provided by their relatives, while other prisoners have no restrictions on such rations.

Political prisoners have no bed, instead they must use rubbish cloths as their bed. Political prisoners are forced to eat rotten and contaminated food and no one has the right to appeal for their good health. On political grounds prisoners are required to denounce from their heart His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Tibetan freedom, and to pledge their love for the Communist Party. At the same time, prisoners must accept the Chinese laws and regulations upon prisoners, renounce what they have done in the past and agree to accept the laws in the future.

If the prisoners refuse to accept these principles, they are subjected to cruel and inhuman treatment using all torture instruments: beating with iron rods, sticks, iron padlocks and cuffing of hands and feet for many days without any food. This resulted in the death of Sangay Tenphel1.

The Chinese do not take any responsibility upon themselves for sick prisoners. Even if sick inmates are taken for consultation, only outdated medicines and equipment are used. It was as a result of this that Lhakpa Tsering2 and Kelsang Thutop 3 died in prison.

Political prisoners are regularly subjected to forced blood extraction and intensive exercises. Political prisoners are also compelled to praise whatever the jailer or prison guards say. Even when the guard makes a false statement we are forced to praise the communist values and ideologies. Nonetheless we are united and never listen to these statements. That is why we are severely beaten and deprived of food, water and sleep.

It is very hard to write the whole story in detail. If we complain about the maltreatment in the prison to the relevant offices, they not only ignore the complaint but also our prison sentences are greatly extended. We are kept under strict surveillance and brutal suppression. In this way the prison guards are promoted and rewards are presented to them by the higher authorities.

In the "Tibet Daily" newspaper it was stated that, during an official meeting, the Public Security Bureau and the Judicial Office of the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR) decided to award those guards who had worked hard in disciplining the political prisoners with the extra facilities.

Now we have 253 political prisoners in Drapchi Prison, ranging in age from 15 to 70 and with prison terms ranging from 1 year to 19 years. The present condition in Tibet is critical and more restrictions are being imposed. We are especially susceptible to the above mentioned atrocities which are directly inflicted upon us. Therefore we appeal to people of the world who love and support truth, peace, democracy and human rights.

From all political prisoners of Drapchi Prison.
10th March 1997

Sangay Tenphel
19-year-old monk, lay name Gonpo Dorjee, died on 6 May 1996, from torture-related injuries.

Lhakpa Tsering
died in Drapchi prison on 15 December 1990.

Kelsang Thutop
49-year-old monk from Drepung monastery, died in Drapchi prison on 1 July 1996.

Panchen Lama: a chidlhood lost

It is now two years since 14 May 1995, the day the Dalai Lama officially proclaimed Gedhun Choekyi Nyima as the X!th reincarnation of the Panchen Lama. Two years later and the Panchen Lama and his parents are still missing somewhere in China, their whereabouts and well being unknown. Tibetan people have not forgotten the young lama, who turned eight years old on 28 April, and the emotions his continuing disappearance produces are captured in the pictures reproduced on the next page, designed by exiled Tibetan school children.

"I am Panchen, my monastery is Tashilhunpo. I sit on a high throne. My monasteries are in Tsang, in Lhasa and in China". These were the words of Gedhun Choekyi Nyima just as he was able to speak. He was born on April 25, 1989, on the nineteenth day of the third Tibetan month in the Earth-Snake Year. His father Konchog Phuntsok and his mother Dechen Chodron are from Lhari district in Nagchu, north-eastern Tibet. On May 14, 1995, His Holiness the Dalai Lama proclaimed six-year-old Gedhun Choekyi Nyima as the 11th reincarnation of the late Panchen Lama, the second highest religious authority in Tibet. On that day he also received his ordained name of "Tenzin Gedhun Yeshe Thrinley Phuntsok Pal Sangpo". Officials in Beijing were enraged that their plans to control the selection process had been disrupted and shortly after this announcement, the child and his family were reported missing from their home, said to have been taken by security forces to Beijing.

China repeatedly denied having taken the Panchen Lama into detention. They also began a propaganda campaign against the Panchen Lama, saying his family was "notorious among their neighbours" and the boy himself had once drowned a dog which the official Chinese News Agency proclaimed "a heinous crime in the eyes of the Buddha". Such unsupported allegations further antagonised the Tibetan people. On the morning of November 4, 1995, 75 Tibetan party members and religious representatives from the "Tibet Autonomous Region" and other parts of Tibet incorporated into Chinese provinces received an 'invitation.' They were selected directly by Beijing specifically to discuss the reincarnation of the Panchen Lama and were told that attending the meeting in Beijing was a 'test of your nationalism and your political stand'.

In a deliberate overruling of the Dalai Lama's proclamation, on 29 November 1995, the Chinese authorities declared Gyaltsen Norbu as their selected reincarnate of the 11th Panchen Lama. His name was drawn from an 18th century golden urn and an elaborate ceremony was held in the Jokhang Temple in Lhasa. The late 10th Panchen Lama himself had however, declared "According to Tibetan tradition the confirmation of either the Dalai or the Panchen Lama must be mutually recognised". This was printed in the official Chinese publication China Reconstructs in January 1988.

On December 8, 1995, the enthronement of the rival Panchen Lama took place at the Tashilhunpo Monastery in Shigatse. Chinese authorities issued an order to all the high incarnate lamas, religious leaders and cadres to arrive at Tashilhunpo Monastery in time for the enthronement . They were told that they could not feign ill health so as to miss the "coronation". This provoked massive protests in Tibet. Tibetans in the three major cities of Lhasa, Shigatse and Chamdo staged sporadic demonstrations to protest China's infringement of Tibet's religious matter. Wall posters appeared with increasing frequency on street walls of Lhasa and Shigatse. Two hundred members of the French Parliament issued an official protest on 2 December, 1995, against China's actions and unanimously agreed to sponsor Gedhun Choekyi Nyima as the youngest political prisoner of conscience. In Tashilhunpo Monastery, the traditional seat of the Panchen Lama, monks openly revolted resulting in massive turmoil. The revolt was forcefully crushed: many monks were taken into detention and beaten and there were more than 50 arrests. Monks in many monasteries voluntarily left their monastery or were expelled when they refused to denounce the Panchen Lama chosen by them.

In May 1996, over a year since the disappearance of Gedun Choekyi Nyima and his parents, Wu Jianmin, China's permanent representative to the UN in Geneva, admitted to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child that he "has been put under the protection of the government at the request of his parents". The Committee requested that China allow a UN representative to "visit the family and provide reassurance", but received no public response from Beijing. In the last two years, various human rights organisations and concerned individuals all over the world have expressed grave concern at the continuing detention of the Panchen Lama. Denmark tabled a draft resolution during the 53rd UN commission on Human Rights in Geneva in March/April 1997, concerning the human rights situation in Tibet and China. The resolution, sponsored by 14 other countries, also raised for the first time, the issue of the Panchen Lama. Discussion was blocked however by a no-action motion by China.

The matter of recognising the Panchen Lama or any high lama is a question of religious belief and the Tibetan people will recognise only the one chosen by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. From exile in India, the Dalai Lama reaffirmed his choice and insisted, "My recognition of the Panchen Lama's reincarnation cannot be changed".

By appointing another Panchen Lama, atheist China disregarded Tibetan religious traditions and violated the right of Tibetan people to manage their own religious affairs. The Tibetan reincarnation system has always been a purely religious matter and China's politicisation of the process represents an attempt to strengthen their control over Tibet. Today the Panchen Lama remains the world's youngest political prisoner. With his childhood sabotaged at such a tender age, his future remains bleak. The Chinese say he is alive, but they have not mentioned where and they have not allowed any independent monitor to visit he and his family.

Results of Panchen Lama art competition

In commemoration of the Proclamation Day of May 14, 1995, when the Dalai Lama officially announced Gedhun Cheokyi Nyima as the XIth reincarnation of the Panchen Lama, TCHRD invited Tibetan school children in India to design a picture or cartoon relating to the Panchen Lama. The response was outstanding with 211 artworks received and we congratulate all those who participated for their great effort and creativity. Congratulations in particular to the following 22 winners: