10 April 2006
HRW calls for UN access to detained Panchen Lama
The New York-based human rights monitoring organisation Human Rights Watch (HRW) has urged President George W. Bush to raise the issue of the Panchen Lama during the upcoming summit with President Hu Jintao and to ask that United Nations representatives have access to the detained Tibetan religious leader. In a letter to President Bush, Brad Adams, Executive Director, Asia Division of Human Rights Watch talked about the situation in Tibet and said: "In July 2005, the chairman of the Tibet Autonomous Region implied that Chinese officials intend to control the selection of the next Dalai Lama. In addition, the March 2005 regulations give the Chinese government - not the Dalai Lama - the authority to select living Buddhas. Ten years ago the Chinese government expropriated from Tibetans the right to select the Panchen Lama. The government claimed that the Panchen Lama was "the highest ranking figure in Tibetan Buddhism", an accreditation never before been given to anyone except the Dalai Lama." HRW urged President Bush to call upon President Hu "As an immediate step" to "allow access by members of the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child to the Panchen Lama designated by the Dalai Lama".