World Tibet Network News, Thursday, March 19, 1998
By Grant McCool
NEW YORK, March 18 (Reuters) - China is paying increased attention to religion but special focus is needed on freedom of faith in Tibet, three U.S. religious leaders said on Wednesday after a ground-breaking mission to the communist country.
``As a result of this visit we established a dialogue on the highest level on he issue of religious freedom in China,'' New York Rabbi Arthur Schneier told a news conference where he and his colleagues released their report on the trip last month.
The three, appointed by President Bill Clinton, went to Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, Hong Kong and Lhasa, making the first visit by a religious delegation to sacred Buddhist temples in Tibet and to a prison where monks and nuns are jailed.
``It's the beginning of a process... and we hope that many other organizations who have been involved in this for years would follow-through with us,'' said Schneier, a Holocaust survivor and world-wide campaigner for religious rights.
Archbishop Theodore McCarrick of Newark, New Jersey, said he believed the two-week visit had contributed to China's decision announced last week to sign the U.N. International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which includes guarantees of freedom of religion and assembly.
Human Rights Watch, longtime critic of China's policies on human rights and religion, said in a comment on the report that the Clinton administration should keep up pressure on Beijing.
``The members of the delegation are clearly committed to persisting in pushing for change but we would strongly oppose any attempt by the White House to use the possibility of further such missions to let up on serious pressure on China to improve human rights,'' the rights group said in a statement.
The delegation said they presented senior Chinese officials with names of 30 religious leaders believed to be detained for reasons of faith. They asked for information about their whereabouts, charges, sentences and release dates.
``We have reason to believe ... that we are making progress on our specific requests regarding some who are in prison and some who have been persecuted,'' said Don Argue, president of the National Association of Evangelicals.
He declined to give further details for fear of endangering the chances of those individuals being released.
The three said they were barred from seeing Gendhun Choekyi Nyima, the eight-year-old Panchen Lama who is the second holiest monk recognized by Tibet's Dalai Lama spiritual leader. According to Tibetan Buddhists he is the ``soul boy'' in whom the Panchen Lama who died in 1989 was reincarnated.
``We were told that he was with his parents and that he was well,'' Schneier said. He said the delegation declined an offer by the Chinese authorities to meet the state-appointed Panchen Lama, who is also eight years old.
``We recommended that special attention be paid to the problems of freedom of religion in Tibet and to promoting dialogue between the Chinese government and the Dalai Lama,'' said the delegation's report, which goes to Clinton and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.
``The reports of our delegation's activities within official circles, as well as in the Chinese press, indicated that religion is now higher on the agenda in China than ever before,'' the report said.
``Official media coverage did not present our visit as evidence of complete religious freedom in China, but allowed that there are differences in perception of religious freedom between our two countries and recognized that it is an important consideration in U.S.-China relations.'' ^REUTERS@