Published by: World Tibet Network News Friday - May 9, 1997

Source: PTI news agency, New Delhi, in English 0453 gmt 9 May 97

Excerpt from report by the Indian news agency PTI

Simla, 9th May: The Tibetan government-in-exile has criticized China

for sentencing Chadrel Rinpoche, a leading religious figure also

known as Jampa Thinley, to six years imprisonment on charges of "

plotting to split the country" and "leaking state secrets" , and

demanded his immediate release.

In a statement here [Simla] where Dalai Lama has taken refuge, the

secretary of the Department of Information and International

Relations Tempa Tsering on Thursday [8th May] said Chadrel Rinpoche

and his two other colleagues, Champa Chung and Samdrup, had not

committed any crime and the charges levelled against them were "false".

He said the charge of leakage of state secrets was totally baseless

as whatever communication Chadrel Rinpoche had with the Dalai Lama

was conducted through the Chinese Buddhist Association and the

response of the Dalai Lama was relayed through the Chinese embassy in

New Delhi.

Demanding immediate release of the Tibetan religious leaders, Tsering

described the six-year jail term slapped on Chadrel Rinpoche by a

Chinese court as "farcical" , as he was already considered guilty by

the Chinese authorities when he was detained and put under official

custody in an unknown place in 1995.

The sentence to Chadrel Rinpoche was an indication of the frustration

of the Chinese leadership over the stand taken by the religious

leader that the recognition of the Panchen Lama was a religious

matter and no new Panchen would be acceptable to Tibetan people

without the approval of Dalai Lama, he said.

Tsering said the fate of Chadrel Rinpoche was inextricably linked to

the fate of Gedun Choekyi Nyima, the boy recognised as true

incarnation of 10th Panchen Lama by the Tibetan spiritual and

temporal head, the Dalai Lama...