Global governments, the Tibetan government-in-exile and rights groups have called on China to free the Panchen Lama, the second-highest spiritual leader in the largest sect of Tibetan Buddhism, who was kidnapped 30 years ago and has remained missing ever since.
“At just six years old, he was abducted by Chinese authorities — an act that remains one of the starkest examples of China’s grave human rights violations,” Tenzin Lekshay, spokesperson for the Dharamsala, India-based Tibetan exile government, known as the Central Tibetan Administration, told Radio Free Asia.
“We urgently call on the Chinese government to reveal the Panchen Lama’s whereabouts and ensure his well-being. As a spiritual leader and as a human being, he has the fundamental right to live freely and fulfill his spiritual responsibilities without fear or restriction,” Lekshay said.
On May 17, 1995, just days after the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, officially recognized Gedhun Choekyi Nyima as the 11th Panchen Lama, Beijing abducted the then-6-year-old boy with his family and teacher.
Their whereabouts have remained unknown, despite repeated calls by global leaders for China to disclose information about the fate of the Panchen Lama who turned 36 last month.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday called on Chinese authorities to immediately release the Panchen Lama and “stop persecuting Tibetans for their religious beliefs.”
“30 years ago China disappeared a 6-year old boy because he represented freedom to Tibetan Buddhists facing brutal oppression. Today, we call for this horrible injustice to end and for China to free Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, the 11th Panchen Lama,” said Asif Mahmood, Commissioner at the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF).
The Washington-based International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) called on global governments and the international community to demand China free the Panchen Lama and reveal his whereabouts and well-being.
“The disappearance of the Panchen Lama and his family are the rule and not the exception in Tibet, where the Chinese government resorts to disappearance, torture, imprisonment … expulsion of monks and nuns from monasteries and nunneries,” said Tencho Gyatso, President of ICT.
“China’s actions of disappearing the rightful Panchen Lama and installing a fake Panchen, show they don’t respect religious freedoms or human rights in Tibet,” she told RFA.
Liu Pengyu, a spokesperson at the Chinese embassy in Washington rejected these calls as an interference in China’s internal affairs.
