Tibetans call on India, other democratic nations to press Beijing on whereabouts of Panchen Lama
government-in-exile on Thursday called on India and other democratic nations to press Beijing to divulge the whereabouts of Panchen Lama Gedhun Choekyi Nyima and allow an independent fact-finding commission to examine his disappearance in China nearly 29 years ago. The demand was made at a grand event held in this Himachal Pradesh town commemorating the 35th birth anniversary of Choekyi Nyima who disappeared just three days after the Dalai Lama declared the then six-year to be the reincarnated Panchen Lama. A joint statement issued by leading Tibetan leaders called on foreign governments and the UN to direct their ambassadors in China to meet with the 11th Panchen Lama and ascertain his whereabouts and wellbeing.
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The Panchen Lama is the second most important figure in Tibetan Buddhism.
«Our most pressing concern is whether the Panchen Rinpoche is still alive or not,» said Penpa Tsering, the Sikyong or political head of Tibet's government-in-exile, in presence of hundreds of Tibetans and international delegations.
«If he is presumed to be alive, has he been brought up with his parents from the age of six up till now for the last 29 years? Or had he been kept in a remote environment to become someone who can't speak even in Tibetan? How much the people around him might have abused and tortured him?»
Tsering accused the Chinese government of «brazenly violating» fundamental human rights and freedom of the Panchen Lama.
In May 1995, Choekyi Nyima was
