Headlines       Vol. 2 Issue 1-2

May 7- May 21 , 1999

Eleventh Panchen Lama's release demanded Hundreds of Tibetans in exile joined their countrymen in the 'mass' letter campaign to the United Nations Human Rights Commission (UNHRC) demanding the release of ten-year-old Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, the eleventh 'Panchen Lama' and the youngest 'political prisoner of conscience', in Tibet. The Sikkim unit of the Tibetan Youth Congress (TYC) has also organised a week-long programme of hunger strike, candlelight processions and mass rallies in protest against the alleged human rights violations by the Chinese Government in Tibet. In their latter faxed to the Secretary General of the UN Human Rights Commission, rights of the child, and delegates attending the on-going 55th session of the UNHRC in Geneva, copies of which were released to the press, the Tibetans in Sikkim have expressed concern over the health of the three TYC hunger strikers in front of the UNHRC headquarters in Geneva. They are continuing their hunger strike since April 5. The TYC in its letters have drawn the attention of the 'disappearance' of the ten-year-old Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, the eleventh incarnation of the Panchen Lama, the second in the political-religious hierarchy of the erstwhile Tibetan nation. Incidentally, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima and his family mysteriously disappeared from their village in northern Tibet in July 1995. It is believed that the Chinese authorities are holding them as prisoners in Beijing, since then. The TYC has also appealed to the world community to deter China from 'politicising religious matters in Tibet'. They have strongly condemned China's rejection of the selection made by the Tibetan temporal head and spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama of the eleventh reincarnation of the Panchen Lama. The TYC has described China's action as a gross violation of human rights and religious freedom not only to the Tibetans, but also to the religious sentiments of Buddhists all over the world. The TYC, the largest Tibetan non-governmental organisation outside Tibet, has demanded the 'immediate and unconditional' release of Gedhun Choekyi Nyima and his family members. The TYC has been demanding among others that the on-going UNHRC adopt a resolution to censure China for its continued human rights violation inside Tibet, besides appointing a special rapporteur on Tibet. The TYC has also urged the UNHRC to urge China to receive a delegation of the International Union of Socialist Youth (IUSY) to visit Tibet to 'investigate' the human rights violation prevailing in Tibet today.

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