World Tibet Network News Monday, February 09, 1998

Washington, DC, (ICT) Feb 9-- A three-member religious mission from the United States, which arrived in Beijing today, will be visiting the Tibetan capital Lhasa on February 26 for two-days of meetings and visits to religious sites. The delegation includes Archbishop Theodore E. McCarrick of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark; Rabbi Arthur Schneier, President of the Appeal of Conscience Foundation, Rev. Donald Argue, President of the National Association of Evangelicals as well as their own Chinese translator and a number of aides.

The delegation has been scheduled to arrive in Lhasa during the Tibetan New Year celebrations, a major holiday in Tibet which in recent years has not been marked by demonstrations as a number of holidays are. "The Chinese government may be using this holiday to try to show that Tibetans have cultural and religious freedoms," said Bhuchung Tsering, Director of ICT. "However, what the delegation will not see is the preparation for the traditional annual Monlam Chenmo, the Great Prayer Festival, which has been banned for some years now," Tsering said. This Prayer Festival normally takes place just after the Tibetan New Year and is one of the holiest events in the Tibetan Buddhist calendar. It was also a time when monks at the Jokhang Temple staged one of the largest recent demonstrations, which was brutally suppressed by Chinese security forces.

During a pre-trip briefing, the delegation told the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) that they will meet with officials in Lhasa to convey the concern of the American people for the issue of religious freedom in Tibet and to seek to follow up with regular visits in the future. ICT urged the delegation to take up the case of the 8-year-old Panchen Lama Gedhun Choekyi Nyima and not to meet the boy selected by the Chinese Government because of ways this may be used by the Chinese media.

ICT is concerned that the delegation, which does not have its own Tibetan translator, will face greater difficulties in Tibet than in China during its meetings and visits. The delegation has made it clear that they are not a fact-finding mission and that a primary goal is to build relationships with religious personnel. Nevertheless, they expect that they will be seeing a very sanitized version of Tibet. Two weeks prior to their departure, delegation members were not aware that their Tibet visit had been scheduled during Tibetan New Year.

Recent reports from Beijing said that China would exclude foreign reporters from covering the delegation's tour. Xing Susu, a official of the Chinese People's Institute of Foreign Affairs, which is hosting the delegation's trip, said, "We will follow and take part in their activities and we will accompany them in their activities."

The International Campaign for Tibet is a non-profit organization which monitors human rights and democracy in Tibet.

By The International Campaign for Tibet, Washington, D.C.