Published by: World Tibet Network News, Saturday, Jun 1, 1996

BEIJING, 1 Jun., (AP) -- China has admitted it is holding a 7-year-old boy named by the Dalai Lama as one of Tibet's most revered spiritual leaders.

The admission, made by China's U.N. ambassador in Geneva, is believed to be the first time China has acknowledged detaining the boy.

Gedhun Cheokyi Nyima disappeared shortly after the exiled Dalai Lama recognized him as the 11th Panchen Lama in mid-May 1995.

Asked by the U.N. Committee for the Rights of the Child about the boy, Ambassador Wu Jianmin said the child's parents requested he be placed under government protection, Friday's China Daily newspaper said, quoting a report from the official Xinhua News Agency.

"The boy was at risk of being kidnapped by Tibetan separatists, and his security had been threatened," Xinhua said.

Wu repeated earlier assertions by Chinese officials that the boy was in good health and that his parents are with him. He did not say where the boy was being held, although he is thought to be in Beijing.

The Tibet Information Network, a London-based monitoring group, said today that the committee asked to send a representative to see the boy, but Beijing has not publicly responded.

The Panchen Lama is one of the most senior figures in Tibetan Buddhism still inside Tibet since a failed uprising caused the Dalai Lama, the religion's supreme spiritual leader, and many senior members of the clergy to flee into exile in 1959.

Beijing decided to repudiate the Dalai Lama's choice and name its own Panchen Lama as a sign of its ultimate authority over the Himalayan region. The Beijing-backed Panchen Lama is a 6-year-old boy.

China's army entered Tibet in 1950 but allegiance to the Dalai Lama and the goal of independence remains strong.

Chinese leaders have used the dispute to discredit the Dalai Lama and test the loyalty of the Buddhist clergy and devout Tibetans.

In a widening of the campaign, in April a ban was placed on public displays of the Dalai Lama's photographs and in mid-May officials announced a national anti-crime campaign would also target separatists.

Tibet Television announced Monday that five Tibetans in Tibet's second largest city, Shigatse, were given sentences of up to five years for advocating independence from China.

Monks and nuns upset about the photo ban and other controls on religion have reportedly fought with Chinese security forces in and around the capital of Lhasa.