China, US, Panchem Lama

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U.S. Deplores Tibetan Monk Sentence (AP)
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WASHINGTON, May 8 (AP) -- The U.S. government rebuked China on Thursday
over the sentencing of a senior Tibetan Buddhist monk to six years in
jail,
saying that his detention was illegal even under China's own criminal
code.

"The United States is deeply disturbed by this decision," said State
Department spokesman Nicholas Burns.

The conviction of Chadrel Rinpoche, along with two aides, for alleged
separatism and leaking state secrets was seen as a warning to Tibetan
clerics, many of whom remain deeply loyal to the exiled Dalai Lama.

The Chinese Communist Party is in the midst of a three-year campaign to
suppress pro-independence sentiment in Tibet and discredit the Dalai
Lama,
according to U.S. officials.

"We would note that Mr. Rinpoche has been detained for nearly two years
--
apparently, we think, in violation of Chinese law," Burns said.

He noted that under the provisions of China's revised criminal law,
which
went into effect Jan. 1, such a lengthy detention period would have
required approval by a committee of the National People's Congress, upon
a
request by the state prosecutor.

"That didn't happen," Burns said.

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2. Tibet rights group slams China for jailing monk (Reuter)
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BEIJING, May 8 (Reuter) - A U.S.-based Tibetan human rights group has
denounced China for jailing a monk convicted of colluding with the Dalai
Lama during a search for the reincarnation of the Himalayan region's
second
holiest cleric.

A court in Tibet's Xigaze prefecture last month sentenced Chadrel
Rinpoche,
the former head of the committee that ran the Tashilunpo lamasery, to
six
years in prison for trying to split the country and leaking state
secrets.

The monk and former official had colluded with Tibet's exiled spiritual
leader, the Dalai Lama, while serving as the head of a team searching
for
the reincarnated "soul boy" of the 10th Panchen Lama, who died in 1989,
a
court official said.

"(Chadrel Rinpoche) only followed customary Tibetan religious tradition
in
his efforts to find the true reincarnation of the 10th Panchen Lama,"
said
Lodi Gyari of the Washington-based International Campaign For Tibet.

"This blatant action is a direct attack on the core religious belief of
the
Tibetan people, and will further alienate the Tibetan people from the
Chinese rulers," he said in a statement.

Local Chinese-language media made no mention of Chadrel Rinpoche's
jailing
in a news blackout apparently imposed out of fear of triggering
anti-Chinese protests.

Chadrel Rinpoche was accused of helping the Dalai Lama to choose a
6-year-old Tibetan boy, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, as the new Panchen Lama in
May, 1995.

The move enraged atheist China which named another 6-year-old Tibetan,
Gyaincain Norbu, instead.

Many Tibetans see the Beijing-anointed boy as a false pretender. The
whereabouts of Gedhun Choekyi Nyima are not known.

Co-defendants Qamba Qung, a former government official, and Samzhub, a
businessman, were sentenced to four and two years in prison
respectively.

The International Campaign for Tibet said Qamba Qung was also a monk and
an
assistant to Chadrel Rinpoche.

The sentences were handed down on April 21 and went into effect on May 5
after the three defendants "indicated acceptance of the rulings and
would
not appeal," the official Xinhua news agency said Wednesday.

China has come under fire from rights groups and Western governments for
its treatment of those seeking independence for Tibet.

Beijing dismisses criticism as interference in its internal affairs and
has
slammed the West for using Tibet as a tool to split China.

Chinese troops marched into Tibet in 1951 and suppressed a rebellion in
the
region in 1959 that forced the Dalai Lama and thousands of followers to
flee into exile in India.

The Dalai Lama won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989 for his non-violent
campaign for more autonomy for his homeland.

Tibet has been rocked in recent years by sporadic, sometimes violent,
anti-Chinese unrest, with monks and nuns often at the forefront of
demonstrations for independence.

Authorities tightened security and launched a manhunt across the deeply
religious region, which borders India, Nepal, Bhutan and Burma, after a
bomb exploded on Christmas Day outside government offices in Tibet's
capital, Lhasa.