Over the past 27 years, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, the Panchen Lama, has gone from being a child and the world’s youngest political prisoner to a 33-year-old man. One thing has remained the same: he has been missing.
Since his abduction and disappearance in 1995, the Chinese government has repeatedly batted away requests for information about the Panchen Lama’s location and his wellbeing. Beijing has made contradictory claims about his whereabouts, insisted that he does not want to be disturbed, and even promoted its own Panchen Lama, who Tibetans reject.
They want the world to forget about Gedhun Choekyi Nyima.
Free Tibet’s supporters have refused to forget. Instead, you have responded in overwhelming numbers. Nearly 1,000 of you have already sent us letters and cards for us to deliver to the Panchen Lama. You have put up missing person posters in your towns and raised noise about the Panchen Lama at demonstrations and online. We have also raised the Panchen Lama’s case with the UK Foreign Office and asked them to deliver a message to their Chinese counterparts from us to the Panchen Lama.
We need to continue the pressure on China from as many angles as possible. Can you write to the Chinese Minister of Justice, demanding that he intervene to bring about the release of the Panchen Lama?
The Chinese government insists that the Panchen Lama is already free and living a peaceful life. If this is true, they should have no fears about providing proof of this. And if this is untrue, they need to hear from as many of us as possible until they get the message; Tibetans will not be fooled; they demand that China frees the Panchen Lama.
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