by Harold Levy

Toronto, Sunday, December 3, 1995, (Toronto Star) - Chanting "Where is Panchen Lama?" about 100 Tibetans and their supporters demonstrated outside the Chinese consulate yesterday.

The Panchen Lama is a 6-year-old boy named Gendun Choekyi who was appointed by the Dalai Lama, the exiled leader of Tibet who fled Chinese rule in 1959, as the country's second-highest spiritual leader in May.

But last Wednesday, the Chinese government appointed its own Panchen Lama--a 6-year-old Gyaincain Norbu--without the Dalai Lama's approval.

The Dalai Lama and his supporters say Gendun vanished from his village in July and he is being held captive in Beijing. The Chinese government denies these allegations.

"A 6-year-old boy is missing, and it doesn't bode well for him," said Rigzin Dolkar, president of the Canadian Tibetan Association of Ontario, which comprises about 70 families most of them in Metro.

"It would be very convenient for them if the rightful Panchen Lama were to disappear," she said, "because the one selected by the Chinese has absolutely no credibility in the eyes of the Tibetan people."

China hopes the successor it has selected will lend legitimacy to its often harsh 45-year rule in Tibet, which has failed to dampen the Tibetan's fervor for the Dalai Lama and for independence.

What is essentially a religious issue has been politicized by the Chinese government, Dolkar said.

Participants in yesterday's demonstration carried signs bearing messages such as "Missing boy detained by China," "Release Panchen Lama," and "Human Rights for Tibet."

The quiet, dignified demonstration outside the St. George St. consulate received a spark from Fools for Love, a politically-oriented street theatre company.

Several Metro police and RCMP officers appeared startled as actors, their faces covered with yellow chiffon handkerchiefs, realistically pretended to storm the consulate as a prelude to their re-enactment of Gendun's story.

Playwright Diane Cartwright said the majority of the group's 12 actors are committed to Tibet's cause. "It's outrageous that a government could treat a 6-year old like this," she said.

The association is pressing Foreign Affairs Minister Andre Ouellett to inquire immediately into Gendun's whereabouts and "establish that he is safe and not being held against his will and the will of his parents."