Published by: World Tibet Network News Friday, November 14, 1997

BEIJING, Nov 14 (AFP) - China's top official in Tibet has hailed Beijing's 1995 showdown with the Dalai Lama as a "great victory" in preventing the troubled region declaring its independence from China, reports reaching Beijing said Friday.

"Finding the new Panchen Lama was a great victory for us in opposing the political conspiracy of the Dalai Lama to split our nation," Tibet party secretary Chen Kuiyuan told the monks of Tashilhunpo monastery in Shigatse.

"Now that we have cleared up the small number of splittists, you must all hold high the banner of patriotism and unity," he said on a November 1 visit to the monastery that was reported in the Tibet Daily.

Beijing and the Dalai Lama locked horns in 1995 over the naming of a successor to the Panchen Lama -- who is the second highest Tibetan religious figure after the Dalai Lama.

The Dalai Lama announced six-year-old Gedhun Choekyi Nyima as the reincarnation in May 1995, prompting Beijing to imprison the child and chose another six-year-old who was subsequently enthroned in a series of rituals.

Extensive investigation by Beijing led to the arrest of Chadrel Rinpoche, the monk who they had charged with naming the Panchen Lama, on the grounds that he had held secret contacts with the Dalai Lama over the process.

Chadrel Rinpoche was the abbot of Tashilhunpo monastery.

"In order to realise his conspiracy to split the motherland over the choice of the Panchen Lama, the Dalai Lama told Chadrel Rinpoche to lie to the central government," Chen said in his speech.

"He secretly conspired and violated basic religious principles and conspired with the Chadrel Rinpoche," he added.

The Dalai Lama fled to India after an abortive uprising in Tibet in 1959. While he has never publically advocated an independent Tibet, China accuses him of plotting to cause trouble in Tibet and eventually split the two to create an independent country.