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Remember The Panchen Lama – Tibet’s Stolen Child

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Remember The Panchen Lama – Tibet’s Stolen Child

By Renato Palmi

South Africa, April 1 – On April 27 this year, South Africans will be celebrating Freedom Day, followed by World Children’s Day on the 28th. Whilst we are all concerned about the innocent children of Iraq suffering the horrors of war, let us not forget a young Tibetan boy who has endured eight years of intense psychological torture and bondage at the hands of the Chinese government.

Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, who was born in Tibet in 1989, was kidnapped along with his parents by the Chinese authorities after being announced as the 11th Panchen Lama by the exiled Dalai Lama in 1995. Since then, Gedhun Nyima has lived under house arrest, isolated from the world and deprived of all the rights of a normal childhood. He is subjected to ruthless, unrelenting political brainwashing by members of the Chinese State Security on a daily basis.

Where are the cries of concern for this boy by the peace activists? Where is the condemnation by the media of the mistreatment of this child and of the Chinese authorities’ ongoing refusal to allow any international humanitarian or human rights group to ascertain the boy’s welfare? Where are the prayer vigils by faith-based organisations? Where is the outcry from children’s rights organisations?

On the morning of 25 April, when Genhum Nyima turns 14, remember him, as he will have no other children with whom to celebrate his birthday. When we celebrate Freedom Day, let us remember the young Panchen Lama and the people of Tibet, who have no freedom or international voice. On the morning of 28 April let us call into mind all those young Tibetan children who flee on foot every year across the freezing, treacherous Himalayan mountain passes in the hope of freedom in exile. And, let us remember daily the thousands of children inside Tibet who have no rights, simply because they are Tibetans.

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