On the 23rdanniversary of the enforced disappearance of Tibetan spiritual leader Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) joins a chorus of voices from the international community demanding China to allow independent bodies to verify, without surveillance and government minders, the fate of the 11thPanchen Lama. Gedhun Choekyi Nyima was six years old when he…
Ngawang Gyaltsen, 41, a monk and accomplished thangka artist has been found secretly detained at a detention centre in Nagchu Prefecture, Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR).
Local Chinese police detained Ngawang Gyaltsen on 24 February this year without the knowledge of his family members who thought he had disappeared. Sustained efforts by local Tibetans in the area led to the revelation that the monk has been in police custody since his detention in Nagchu area.
No one knows the exact reason behind the monk’s detention.
According to a reliable information received by the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD), Jinpa Gyatso, a younger brother of a Chinese government civil servant Tashi Dhondup
disappeared few days before the latter’s arrest on 12 March 2009.
Jinpa Gyatso, age 25, also hailed from Sum-dho Township, Mangra County (Ch: Gui nan Xian), Tsolho “Tibet Autonomous Prefecture” “TAP”, (Ch: Hainan) Qinghai Province. He was a student at a higher
college in Xining city, the provincial capital city of Qinghai Province.
Tashi Dhondup’s wife Rinchen Tso and her five and three years old daughters were helpless at the face of their family tragedy. Sources told TCHRD that the provincial authorities have deployed a huge
contingent of armed security forces in Sum-dho Townships, Tharshul and Gomang Townships under Mangra County. TCHRD also learnt that a huge numbers of the Chinese security forces and informers in civilian dress were deployed in the surrounding areas of Mangra County.
A 19-year old Tibetan monk, Thubten Samten, disappeared from his room in Sera Monastery in Tibet. Sources believe that the Chinese police lifted him for alleged political activities.
According to reliable information received by the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD), Thubten disappeared on the morning of 23 May 2006, and his whereabouts remain unknown till date.
The year 2005 has been declared as the International Year of Gedhun Choekyi Nyima the 11th Panchen Lama of Tibet. He turns 16 on 25 April 2005. It is his tenth year in Chinese custody at an undisclosed location after he and his parents disappeared in 17 May 1995.
On 14 May 1995, His Holiness the Dalai Lama recognised the then six-years old Gedhun Choekyi Nyima as the reincarnation of the Xth Panchen Lama. The government of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) declared the announcement invalid and illegal. Three days later, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima and his parents disappeared and have never been seen again. China has signed the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child on 29 August 1990 and ratified it on 2 March 1992. China’s detention of boy Panchen Lama is a clear violation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, as well as domestic and international Laws.