Friday April 25, 2008 (By Aqua Dreamer)

Today is the 19th birthday of Gendhun Choekyi Nyima, the 11th Panchen Lama and Tibet’s second most important religious leader. He was abducted by the Chinese state in May 1995 at the age of six and became the world’s youngest political prisoner. China has flatly rejected all requests for information on his whereabouts and well-being from national governments, the EU and UN. And this country dares to host the Olympic Games, a universal symbol of moral values and human rights .

We need to show China that Tibetans and supporters of human rights have not forgotten the Panchen Lama. They may parade the puppet Panchen Lama (chosen by Chinese authorities and NOT the Dalai Lama) and make him denounce the Dalai Lama. But the Panchen Lama of Tibetan hearts is still Gendhun Choekyi Nyima and we will not rest till he is returned to Tibetans.

As the Panchen Lama spends his 19th birthday in captivity, we can make a small difference by signing the online petitions demanding his release.

• Via Students for a Free Tibet: Sign the petition here
• Via Panchenlama.info: Sign the petition here
• Via FreeTibet.org: Sign the petition here
• You can also light a butter lamp of hope for the Panchen Lama here

The current situation inside Tibet is not encouraging as China continues its brutal crackdown. Reports of house-to-house searches, late-night raids on monasteries and nunneries, mass imprisonments, and torture are widespread. People everywhere are afraid to leave their homes for fear of being arbitrarily beaten or detained. Food and supplies to the monasteries in and around Lhasa have been cut off and many people fear starvation. Click here to read more. (via SFT)

China has also stepped up its despicable sounding “Patriotic Re-education Campaign” for Tibetans. This means that the ‘jolly men in Red’ will attempt to ‘re-educate’ Tibetans to make them “more patriotic” towards China. So there will be forced denouncements of His Holiness, his pictures will continue to be banned as will gathering of groups. Brutal crackdown on monasteries and peaceful Buddhist monks, forced signature campaigns and repression of Tibetan religion and culture will continue unhindered. Do we need more proof of China’s exceptional ineptitude and moral incompetence to host the Olympic Games? Is anyone listening? Does anyone even care?

Buddhism teaches interdependence, the concept that all events / actions are related to each other. We must remember that ‘No one is free when others are oppressed’.

 

 

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Other Posts by this Author

• What is to be done, when both the wronged and the oppressor quote Gandhi? - April 22nd, 2008
• We are enraged Tibetans... Hear us roar! - April 14th, 2008

Posted: 04|25|08 at 10:34 pm. Filed under: Free Tibet Blog.
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