Dharamsala, 10 November - In what observers suspect is a deliberate Chinese attempt to suppress dissenting voices in their selection of a rival Panchen Lama, the Beijing authorities have kept out Ngapo Ngawang Jigme, the highest Tibetan in the official Chinese hierarchy, from the secret meeting of 75 top hand-picked Tibetan cadres and lamas, that is underway in the Chinese capital.

Beijing authorities recently summoned 75 Tibetan cadres and lamas from all over the "Tibet Autonomous Region" and other Tibetan areas of Kham and Amdo for a secret meeting, starting on 5 November, which would probably decide the Chinese choice of the Panchen Lama.

Those who have been hand-picked to give some legitimacy to this exercise are important lamas who will be coerced into toeing the official Chinese line on the Panchen Lama issue, and those who will be doing the most persuading will be Tibetan party members like Tenzin and Pasang, who know nothing about Tibetan traditions, customs and beliefs.

Tibetan officials here observe that the reasons why Ngapo, former vice-chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, and the former chairman of the "Tibetan Autonomous Region" has been excluded from this important event may be because of his honest and forthright comments on China's pretence of having recognized and approved of the 14th Dalai Lama, because of his knowledge of Tibetan history and traditions.

Official communist Chinese documents and media report that the envoy of the nationalist Chinese, Wu Zhongxin, gave the official Kuomintang recognition of the 14th Dalai Lama in 1940 and had presided over his enthronement, and to support this claim re-produced a photograph of the Chinese official with the young Dalai Lama, saying that this was taken during the enthronement ceremony.

But Ngapo is on record saying that this photograph was taken a few days after the ceremony when Wu had the privilege of having a private audience with His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

"Wu Zhongxin's claim of having presided over the enthronement ceremony on the basis of this photograph is a blatant distortion of historical facts," Ngapo said in Tibet Daily, 31 August 1989.

On the issue of the reincarnation of the Panchen Lama, the 10th Panchen Lama himself made these comments, "According to Tibetan traditions, the confirmation of either the Dalai or the Panchen must be mutually recognized." These remarks were printed in the official Chinese publication China Reconstructs, January 1988.

According to reliable source based in the Chinese capital, the 75 Tibetans will return to Tibet on 12 November. Those returning to the "Tibet Autonomous Region" will stop in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province, where they will arrive on 13 November and 30 rooms have been booked for them in the Tibet-Chengdu Guesthouse.

Tempa Tsering Secretary Department of Information and International Relations Gangchen Kyishong Dharamsala 176 215