Published by: World Tibet Network News Wednesday, September 17, 1997

BEIJING, Sept 17 (AFP) - Tibet's top communist officials on Wednesday defended the continuing crackdown on Buddhist monasteries in the region, saying the purge focused exclusively on separatists and activists bent on sedition.

"Some monks and nuns do not study Buddhism, do not observe canons and discipline and do not practise what they preach," said Tibetan party secretary

Chen Kuiyuan.

"At the instigation of splittist groups abroad, some of them have engaged in activities designed to jeopardise social stability, undermine ethnic unity and split the motherland," Chen told reporters on the sidelines of the 15th party congress in Beijing.

Chen insisted that the subsequent crackdown on temples and monasteries, which has been the subject of vocal criticism from human rights groups and exiled Tibetans, had been ordered in response to public demand.

The Tibetan authorities began carrying out their "education in patriotism" campaign in most of Tibet's 1,700 temples last year. Human rights organisations say it has led to monastery closures, mass arrests and forced detentions.

Chen said the crackdown was necessary to "establish normal religious order" and to protect "the legitimate rights and interests of believers."

According to deputy party secretary Raidi (eds: one name), the campaign has so far covered 30,000 of Tibet's estimated 46,000 Buddhist monks and nuns, and revealed "serious penetration by separatist cliques led by the Dalai Lama" -- Tibet's exiled spiritual leader.

"Small bands of criminals" exposed during the crackdown had been "excommunicated" from the temples, Raidi said. He denied there had been any "riots or trouble" sparked by the actions of the authorities.

Raidi also dismissed concerns about the fate of the six-year-old boy -- Gedhun Choekyi Nyima -- who was named in May 1995 by the Dalai Lama as the reincarnation of the Panchen Lama.

The Dalai Lama's announcement infuriated Beijing, which immediately dropped the boy's name from its list of candidates and then named its own choice in November the same year.

Since then Nyima has dropped out of sight but Raidi denied reports that he had been placed under effective house arrest.

"He is very happy. He enjoys a free life and is receiving education at school," he said.

Raidi also denounced the Dalai Lama, who fled Tibet in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule, saying he engaged in activities "aimed at splitting the motherland" and tried to incite violent unrest.

"How can we describe what he did as non-violent?" he said.