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 Jadrel 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.
Jadrel 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 Jadrel 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).