CHINA SAYS TIBETAN BOY NOT POLITICAL PRISONER
By Benjamin Kang Lim
Reuters
April 28, 2006
Original LinkBEIJING - China condemned exiled Tibetans and international human rights watchdogs on Friday for calling a Tibetan youth the world's youngest political prisoner, saying their aim is to push for independence for the Himalayan region.
The whereabouts of Gendun Choekyi Nyima, 17, who pro-Tibet groups say has been under house arrest since the region's exiled god-king, the Dalai Lama, appointed him the 11th Panchen Lama in 1995, is one of China's most keenly guarded secrets.
In reply to questions submitted by Reuters, the State Council Information Office said China had not arranged meetings between the boy and foreign organizations or media out of respect for the family's wishes not to be disturbed.
"Exiled Tibetan splittist elements and some foreign organizations with ulterior motives have been whipping up opinion that Gendun Choekyi Nyima is the world's youngest political prisoner," the cabinet spokesman's office said in a statement.
"Their objective is to split China, sabotage ethnic unity and internationalize the Tibet issue to serve Tibetan independence."
The Dalai Lama's unilateral announcement embarrassed and enraged China's atheist Communists, who dropped Nyima's name from a shortlist of candidates and endorsed Gyaltsen Norbu as the reincarnation of the 10th Panchen Lama, who died in 1989.
Tibetan Buddhists believe in reincarnation and that the soul of a "living Buddha" migrates to a boy born shortly after the holy monk's death. Reincarnations are identified through a mystical search that includes a series of ancient and rigorous tests such as picking out items that belonged to a late lama.
The cabinet spokesman's office said Nyima was "no reincarnation of the Panchen Lama" and was "just an ordinary boy belonging to China's Tibetan ethnic group."
"At present, his health is good. He lives a normal happy life and is receiving good cultural education," it said. "According to the wishes of his family, meetings with foreign organizations, the media and others have not been arranged to avoid disturbing him and his family's normal life."
In reply to a question on whether the Panchen Lama anointed by the Dalai Lama was studying Buddhism, the cabinet spokesman said it was totally his personal religious freedom.
The Chinese-appointed Panchen Lama made his debut on the world stage this month at China's first international religious forum since 1949. The 16-year-old is reviled by Dalai Lama loyalists as a pretender and security is extremely tight wherever he goes, apparently to prevent assassination attempts.
The return of the Dalai Lama, who fled into exile in India in 1959 after an abortive uprising, does not hinge on whether he recognizes the Chinese Panchen, the cabinet spokesman's said.
It argued that the Chinese central government had the final say on determining reincarnations of "living Buddhas" like the Dalai or Panchen according to a 1793 agreement between Tibet and China's last dynasty, the Qing (1644-1911).
The door to dialogue with the Dalai Lama was open, the statement said, but he must truly abandon his advocacy of Tibetan independence and publicly recognize Tibet as an inseparable part of China, Taiwan as a Chinese province and the People's Republic of China as the sole legitimate government of China.
............
NHNE Dalai Lama Resource Page