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Protests as monk turns 12
26/04/2001 12:36 - (SA)
New Delhi, India - Waving flags and placards, schoolchildren marched near the Indian Parliament on Wednesday, the 12th birthday of the detained Panchen Lama, demanding that China release the boy many Tibetans believe is an embodiment of the Buddha.
As police watched, a few monks in traditional red robes and women shouting slogans walked down Parliament Street and stopped a few hundred meters (feet) from the Parliament building.
"Release soon! Release the Panchen Lama!" they shouted. Many children carried cardboard signs showing a picture of Gendun Choekyi Nyima and calling him the "youngest prisoner of the world."
The Chinese government detained the child days after the Dalai Lama, the supreme Tibetan religious leader, recognised him as the reincarnation of the previous Panchen Lama in 1995. He has not been seen publicly in five years.
The Chinese government has designated another boy as the Panchen Lama.
The Dalai Lama has been based in Dharmsala, a hill town in northern India, since 1959, when he fled Tibet after a failed rebellion against Chinese rule. - Sapa-AP
- SAPA
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