World Tibet Network News Monday, April 01, 1998

LONDON, April 1 (Reuters) - China has agreed to a week-long visit to Tibet by envoys from the European Union to look at the human rights situation there, a British Foreign Office minister said on Wednesday.

Derek Fatchett told parliament he hoped the delegation would be able to meet religious leaders and ordinary Tibetans during the visit next month.

The EU pressed for the visit because of its concerns about alleged repression of Buddhist clergy in Tibet and about the reported large-scale migration of ethnic Han Chinese into Tibet, an autonomous region of China.

It is particularly worried about the circumstances of an eight-year-old boy who was identified in 1995 by the exiled Dalai Lama as the reincarnation of the Panchen Lama, Tibet's second highest religious leader, who died in 1989.

Fatchett, speaking in a debate on human rights in Tibet, said the EU delegation would consist of the British, Austrian and Luxembourg ambassadors in Beijing.

Britain currently holds the EU presidency, having taken over from Luxembourg in January. It will be succeeded in the second half of this year by Austria.

Referring to Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, the boy identified by the Dalai Lama as the Panchen Lama, Fatchett said: "He is just a child and we are deeply concerned about his welfare. His is one of the individual cases which we will continue to raise with the Chinese at every opportunity."

The boy has not been seen in public since he was named by the Dalai Lama as the new Panchen Lama. China refused to recognise him and instead installed its own choice of Panchen Lama.

Tibet has been rocked in the last decade by a string of often violent protests against Chinese rule. Many Tibetan monks and nuns have been sentenced to long prison terms for leading the protests.