Contents
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1. Weekly Summary
2. India, China agree on troop cut in disputed region
3. China Blocks Visas for Participants in Women's Forum
4. China denies arrest of Panchen Lama
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1. Weekly Summary
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As a sign of improving relations, India and China agreed to disengage four
border posts along their northeastern border.
Visas are not forthcoming for many applicants to the upcoming Women's Forum
and associated NGO Women's conference in China.
There is no clear news on the welfare and whearabouts of the Panchen Lama
incarnation and Chadrel Rinpoche, chief abbot of the Tashilumpo monastery.
China now says Chandrel Rinpoche is in hospital and that the Panchen Lama
incarnation is in Tibet. Previous reports said both had been taken to
Beijing, along with the boy's parents.
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2. India, China agree on troop cut in disputed region
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NEW DELHI, Aug 20 (Reuter) - India and China agreed on Sunday to pull back
their troops from four border posts in India's northeastern state of Arunachal
Pradesh, parts of which are claimed by Beijing, officials said.
The decision followed two years of talks to ease tensions along the
4,000-km (2,500 miles) Himalayan border, cause of a brief war between the Asian
giants in 1962.
The two countries had agreed to work for peace and tranquillity along the
disputed frontiers when Indian Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao visited Beijing
in September 1993.
[...]
Tibetan exiles demonstrated in New Delhi against the visit of the Chinese
delegation on Friday, saying that the border was between India and Tibet and
China had no right to negotiate. China annexed Tibet in 1950.
The Press Trust of India said Sunday's agreement set the ground for the
disengagement of two Indian posts and two Chinese posts at Sumdarung Chu Valley
in the Wangdung area where rival troops are separated by as little as 50 yards
(metres).
Haider said the withdrawal would be undertaken "without prejudice to
respective positions on the alignment of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the
area" dividing the armies.
The two sides also decided to regulate and prevent "dangerous" military
activity such as firing and hunting close to the LAC, PTI said. Other
confidence-building measures included prior notification of military excercises
and prevention of air intrusions across the LAC.
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3. China Blocks Visas for Participants in Women's Forum
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By William Branigin
Washington Post Foreign Service
As the U.N. World Conference on Women approaches, thousands of women are
effectively being barred by the Chinese government from attending a parallel
private forum outside Beijing, women's groups say.
Some women, particularly those representing Tibetan groups that China
considers hostile, have been refused visas outright. Many others have
encountered bureaucratic obstacles and delays in the visa process that some
groups fear are aimed at limiting attendance at the forum generally.
Inevitably, women's groups say, the massive gathering of nongovernmental
organizations, known as NGOs, 35 miles from Beijing from Aug. 30 to Sept. 8 will
challenge the Chinese government on freedom of expression. Many groups plan to
bring in publications and other material in defiance of Chinese warnings that
politically offensive materials will be confiscated.
[...]
"The reduction of numbers [at the NGO Forum] is clearly one goal of the
China Organizing Committee," which is in charge of arrangements for the
conference, said Alice M. Miller of the International Human Rights
whose members range from Australian Aborigines and native Hawaiians to Taiwanese
and Tibetans. China regards Taiwan as a breakaway province and forcibly occupied
Tibet in the 1950s.
Berriault said that although she had submitted all the required
documentation and paid a $40 fee last week, the Chinese Embassy returned her
passport Wednesday with no visa or explanation. She said a consular official
told her only, "This is the Chinese way. We reserve the right to deny a visa to
anyone." Pressed further, another official simply repeated, "I think you know
the reason," Berriault said.
The embassy's press office did not reply to questions about the matter.
In another case, Dechen Wangdu, the American daughter of prominent Tibetan
activists, said she received her passport from the Chinese consulate in San
Francisco with a visa in it stamped "canceled." She said the consulate gave no
explanation.
More common than outright rejections, women's groups say, are delays in
accepting visa applications on grounds that the women do not have letters
confirming their hotel accommodations or that their names are not on a Chinese
list of those registered with the forum.
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4. China denies arrest of Panchen Lama
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BEIJING, Aug. 21 (UPI) -- A Foreign Ministry spokesman Monday denied reports
that the abbot who headed the search for the 11th panchen lama has been
arrested.
Chen Jian said Chadrel Rinpoche, chief abbot of the Tashilumpo monastery in
Xigaze, is "ill and in a hospital" and is not in custody.
Analysts said Rinpoche was arrested in Chengdu May 17, apparently for
notifying Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the dalai lama, of the identity of
the new panchen lama, the second ranking spiritual leader. He was identified as
6-year-old Gedhun Choekyi Nyima.
Chen also denied the child has been arrested and taken to Beijing.
He said the boy remains in Tibet, not under house arrest, but refused to
elaborate.
Chen said only Beijing has the authority to choose a successor to the dalai
lama and that the communist government would never recognize the legitimacy of
the dali lama's decision, despite the fact the boy was found in Beijing's
official search.
The government had its own list of candidates, but was "held back because of
the meddling of the dali lama."
[...]
Analysts said several riots and dozens of arrests have taken place at the
monastery since May when monks refused demands by local Chinese authorities to
sign a proclamation denouncing Rinpoche.
A high-ranking monk at Tashilumpo, the venerable wangdu, killed himself July
24 rather than denounce the boy as the newly appointed panchen lama, sources in
Dharamsala said.
They also said more than 80 monks from the temple have been arrested by
Chinese security forces and are being held at Nyra prison, about 250 kilometers
southwest of the Tibetan capital Lhasa.
Following the arrests in Xigaze, police closed the monastery to the public
and expelled foreign tourists from the city, they said.
