Drie Tibet organisaties dringen aan bij president Hu Jintao voor de bekendmaking van verblijfplaats van Panchen Lama op zijn 21ste verjaardag op 25 april

Drie Tibet organisaties dringen aan bij president Hu Jintao voor de bekendmaking van verblijfplaats van Panchen Lama op zijn 21ste verjaardag op 25 april
23 april 2010

Ter gelegenheid van de 21ste verjaardag van de Panchen Lama dringen drie Tibet organisaties (Tibetaanse gemeenschap Nederland, International Campaign for Tibet, Tibet Support Group) aan bij president Hu Jintao voor bekendmaking van de verblijfblaats van Gedhun Choekyi Nyima in een memorandum. 

Hieronder volgt het volledige memorandum (in het Engels). 


To: President Hu Jintao
c/o Embassy of the People’s Republic of China
Willem Lodewijklaan 10
2517 JT Den Haag

Reference: Memorandum at the 21st Birthday of the Eleventh Panchen Lama of Tibet


Amsterdam, April 23 2010

Your Excellency,

As we observe the 21st Birthday of Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, the Eleventh Panchen Lama of Tibet on April 25, we deplore the enforced disappearance of this spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, for the past 15 years along with his parents and relatives, by the Government of the People’s Republic of China.

We acknowledge the fact that during the past 15 years, Governments, Parliaments, NGOs and United Nations human rights Experts, including the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights have repeatedly urged your Government through bilateral and multilateral avenues to declare the whereabouts of the Panchen Lama and to allow access to him by an independent expert. In this regard, we deplore that your Government continues to ignore these calls by making unsubstantiated claims that all is well with Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, including the recent claim that he is “living in Tibet.”

We note that in one of your Government’s responses to the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief of 7 September 2005, it was stated that Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, “is in good health and just like other children, is leading a normal, happy life and receiving a good cultural education.” In connection with claim of your Government we wish to know fully what kind of “cultural education” the Eleventh Panchen Lama of Tibet is receiving and under whose guidance. For instance, who are Gedhun Choekyi Nyima’s religious teachers (Yongzin in Tibetan).

We wish to once urge your Government to positively respond to the recommendation by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child which in September 2005 called upon China to receive an independent expert to visit Gedhun Choekyi Nyima.

Furthermore, we condemn that your Government as since 1997, failed to provide written document as demanded by the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances to support China’s claim that Gedhun Choekyi Nyima and his family wished not to be disturbed by outsiders. The Working Group which considers the case of Gedhun Choekyi Nyima as one of its outstanding ones to be resolved stated that it “would appreciate being provided by the Government of China with documents supporting its statement that he and his parents had appealed to the Government for protection and at present are “leading normal lives and enjoying perfect health.”

We remind your Government that in March 2007, 15 NGOs in a statement to the UN Human Rights Council expressed their concern over the disappearance of the Panchen Lama describing the abuse as a crime being committed by the People’s Republic of China. “The crime of enforced disappearance, as defined in the Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, is a continuous crime until the fate or whereabouts of the disappeared person becomes known…Accordingly, the enforced disappearance, since 1995, of Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, the Eleventh Panchen Lama of Tibet, is a continuous crime.”

During the past 15 years, the only visual image available to date of Gedhun Choekyi Nyima showed him when he was six years old. This image was released by the Office of H. H. the Dalai Lama after Gedhun Choekyi Nyima was recognised as the Eleventh Reincarnate of the Panchen Lama by the Dalai Lama in May 1995.

Through this memorandum, we strongly also urge the Chinese authorities to:

• Declare the whereabouts of Gedhun Choekyi by allowing acces to the members of the Diplomatic Missions and the Foreign Correspondents Club in Beijing.
• Invite the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Relgion or Belief and Experts from the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child to visit Gedhun Choekyi Nyima and his family members.
• Recognise the fact that Gedhun Choekyi Nyima who is now an adult has the full right to represent himself and that your Government does not have the right to speak on his behalf.
• End the enforced disappearance of Tibet’s Eleventh Panchen Lama, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima.
• Withdraw Order No.5 of July 2007, issued by the State Religious Affair Bureau on the so-called “management measures for the reincarnation of Living Buddhas in Tibetan Buddhism.”

Yours Sincerely,

Tsering Jampa
Executive Director, International Campaign for Tibet, Europe

Thom Wennekes
Coordinator, Tibet Support Groep NL

Norbu Dhondup
Chair, Tibetan Community NL