World Tibet Network News Friday, April 10, 1998

TOKYO, April 10 (Kyodo) -- The Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled political and spiritual leader, said Friday he has been unable to ascertain the whereabouts of an 8-year-old Tibetan boy missing since 1995, when he was identified by the Dalai Lama as the reincarnation of the 10th Panchen Lama, Tibet's second most senior lama.

The Dalai Lama, who is in Japan to attend a Buddhist conference held earlier this week in Kyoto, told a press conference that he has "no information" about the whereabouts of Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, who has not been seen in public since 1989.

"We don't know," he lamented.

China has strongly objected to the Dalai Lama's current visit to Japan, his seventh to date, and his representatives urged reporters not to ask him political questions.

The Dalai Lama himself abstained from political statements, saying he did not want to cause the Japanese government "embarrassment."

The European Union, which has expressed concern about the welfare of the boy and the repression of Buddhist clergy in Tibet, is set to send a delegation to Tibet next month, following China's acceptance of the plan last week, according to reports from London.

Shortly after the Dalai Lama recognized Gendun Choekyi Nyima as the

Panchen Lama in May 1995, the boy and his family were reportedly taken to

Beijing from their home in the Lhari district of Nagchu, Tibet. They have

been missing ever since.

Chinese authorities have disputed the Dalai Lama's authority to announce

the discovery of the reincarnated Panchen Lama and have chosen another young boy, Gyaltsen Norbu, as the 11th Panchen Lama.

Beijing has publicly asserted that "according to religious ritual and historical convention, the search for and the determining of the 'soul boy' must be conducted under the leadership of the central government, and it is the central government that has the supreme authority in the issue of the reincarnation of the 'soul boy'."

China claims Tibet has never been an independent state and the Dalai Lama's "meddling" in the search for the reincarnation of the Panchen Lama proves that he has not changed his stand of "splittism."

Beijing views the Dalai Lama's activities as subversive, with the intention of ending Chinese rule over Tibet.

The Dalai Lama, winner of the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize, fled Tibet in 1959 after an abortive uprising against Chinese occupation, and has since established a government-in-exile in Dharmasala, India, from which he has called for greater autonomy and religious freedom for his homeland.

He has appealed directly to Chinese President Jiang Zemin, expressing concern about the boy's well-being and appealing for Jiang's personal intervention in extending the Chinese government's recognition to the young Panchen Lama.

In view of the fact that the institution of the Panchen Lama is of great importance to Tibetan Buddhism, the Dalai Lama has expressed concern that the young Panchen Lama will miss out on proper religious training according to Tibetan spiritual tradition.

Dozens of monks and lay people have been detained over the years in connection with the reincarnation controversy, according to Amnesty International, a human rights watchdog organization.