By Renato Palmi
South Africa – Gedhun Choekyi Nyima is the youngest political prisoner in the world – that is, if he is still alive.
Assuming that he has not been murdered, for nine lonely years, a young Tibetan boy has been held prisoner and indoctrinated at the hands of the Chinese government. He was not imprisoned for any crime of his own, but because of Tibetan sages (including the Dalai Lama) recognising him, at the age of six, as being the reincarnation of the second holiest figure in Tibetan Buddhist tradition, commonly known as the Panchen Lama.
On April 25, Gedhun Nyima would turn 15 years old. He and his parents were abducted from their home in central Tibet in May 1995 and are believed to be under house arrest somewhere in the Chinese capital of Beijing. PRC officials also arrested more than 60 Tibetans who were involved in the search for and selection of the Panchen Lama.
No one outside the Chinese government has been allowed to talk to or see Gedhun and his family. Only members of international Tibet Support Groups, human rights movements and Tibetans themselves – whether living in forced exile from their homeland or struggling to survive in Chinese-occupied Tibet – will remember and honour his birthday.
It is now 45 years since the People’s Republic of China invaded Tibet and entrenched its illegal occupation of this sovereign nation, in blatant violation of international law and as such, an outrage – made easier for the PRC to get away with because of the Tibetans’ inherently non-violent culture and religion, and because the global community, whether at governmental or grass-roots level, remains silent and uninterested.
Would there be this apathy if the boy were of any other nationality or religion? Would the world shrug its collective shoulders were the occupiers of Tibet not able to claim “favoured nation” trading status? Would there be such callously nonchalant dismissal if Tibetans were planting bombs in subways and nightclubs, assassinating Chinese political leaders, or taking hostages at sacred sites?
In short, were the Dalai Lama, as spiritual and temporal leader of Tibet, to decree that only violence and aggression could bring about change in his beloved Tibet, the world’s response would probably be extremely vocal, and the call to “Free Tibet” would not only become a celebrated cause, but would generate global headline banners, radio talk shows, TV coverage, print media comment and analysis and Foreign Affairs mediation, along with frequent marches and demonstrations.
However, since the only innocent blood being lost in this struggle is that of the Tibetans themselves, there are no statements of concern calling for the release of the youngest political prisoner in the world, not even by South Africa’s Foreign Affairs ministry, as we celebrate 10 years of our own freedom under democratic rule.
Ironically, Richard Holbrooke – former US ambassador to the UN – during his recent speech at a genocide memorial site in Rwanda, failed to mention Tibet when he said: “The lesson of each genocide is the same: the killing really takes off only after the murderers see that the world, and especially the United States, does not care or is not going to react. That was the lesson of Bosnia, East Timor, Angola and Rwanda.”
As he should well know, the UN has officially described China’s massacres of Tibetans in their own homeland as “genocide” some decades ago. Yet, he concluded his address with the following: “We must learn from the errors that allowed Rwanda to take place. Let us pray that there truly never will be a need for yet another memorial, somewhere as yet undetermined, to remember another horror that has not yet occurred.”
On 25 April, let us not forget Gedhun Nyima. Let us imagine how we would feel if he were our own child, our growing son, whose whereabouts and welfare have never been confirmed since his disappearance nine years ago.
The Chinese government has scant respect for the Tibetan people and none at all for the international community, as they violate the human rights of all Tibetans with total impunity. Every citizen of the world, as private individuals or community groups or national governments, has a moral and ethical duty to demand that the Chinese government release the Panchen Lama without delay.
Renato Palmi can be contacted at yakshack@iafrica.com
