Published by: World Tibet Network News, Thursday, October 10, 1996

NEW DELHI, Oct 10 (Reuter) - Tibetan exiles on Thursday condemned the arrest of Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo and appealed to the international community to urge his release.

"We are extremely sorry to hear that Liu Xiaobo...has been jailed by the authorities," said Kalon Tashi Wangdi, information and international relations minister of the "government in exile" formed by Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.

Liu had sent open letters to the government to demand press freedom and talks with the Dalai Lama.

Chinese police have given no reason for the detention of Liu, a renowned literary critic who gained fame as a dissident in the 1989 student-led pro-democracy movement, which was crushed by the military with heavy loss of life.

He was ordered to serve three years in a labour camp just hours after police detained him in an early morning raid on his Beijing home.

However, Liu is believed to have particularly angered Chinese authorities with a demand that Communist Party chief Jiang Zemin be indicted, impeached and step down for violating the constitution for saying the People's Liberation Army was under the "absolute leadership" of the party instead of the state.

His family say they have yet to be notified of his offence.

Wangdi appealed for international support for Liu.

"The stifling of independent thought will never succeed in snuffing out the yearning for freedom and democracy in China and Tibet," Wangdi said in a statement.

"We appeal to the international community to urge the Chinese government to release Lui Xiaobo immediately."