25 years on, response from China on whereabouts of Panchen Lama “unsatisfactory & insufficient”

New Delhi, Nov 20 (HS): “Next year (2020) will be the 25th anniversary of Panchen Lama Gedhun Choekyi Nyima’s disappearance. He was merely 6 years of age when the Chinese government abducted him and his entire family and even to this day their whereabouts are unknown. Despite repeated calls by the United Nations experts and international community, China has refused to divulge any information on this,” said an official at Central Tibetan Administration.

He told the Tibet Bureau, Geneva and the United Nations and Human Rights Desk of Department of Information and International Relations are constantly monitoring and following up on the case of the Panchen Lama’s enforced disappearance.

It may be recalled that the day before yesterday in Geneva, the experts at United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID) expressed in its communication that the response received from China about the XIth Panchen Lama, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, was “not considered sufficient”. The enforced disappearance of Panchen Gedhun Choekyi Nyima “will remain under the consideration”, they added.

When asked about the fate of Panchen Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID) in its 119th session held in September this year, China responded the experts with the usual practice of unverifiable and insufficient information. In addition to the usual standard reply stating that Panchen Choekyi Nyima has “received free compulsory education”, this time, China has added that “he went to university”, and “currently he has found a job”.  However, on the whereabouts of Panchen Gedhun Choekyi Nyima and his family, China has remained silent yet again.

The last response that the United Nations Working Group had received from China was in May 2013, in which China said that Panchen Gedhun Choekyi Nyima has “received a tertiary education”.