New Delhi, 23 abr (EFE).- Young Tibetans exiled in India today began a motorcycle rally from Dharamsala, in the Indian Himalayas, to New Delhi, to raise awareness about the disappearance of one of its most important spiritual leaders.
The caravan of some 30 motorcycles began their journey, of almost 500 kilometers, towards the Indian capital to demand that China release the 11th Panchen Lama, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, considered the youngest political prisoner in the world.
Nyima's whereabouts have remained shrouded in mystery after China kidnapped him in 1995, three days after the six-year-old boy was chosen as the incarnation of the Panchen Lama, and replaced him with his own Panchen Lama, whom Tibetan Buddhists reject.
The journey began around 9.00 hours (03.30 GMT), and McLeodGanj, a small hill station, from Dharamshala city, in northern India, the headquarters of the Tibetan government in exile.
"Creemos en él como el verdadero Panchen Lama y exigimos que el gobierno chino lo libere de inmediato", the president of the Tibetan Youth Congress told Efe, Tenzing Jigme.
La manifestación fue organizada por el Congreso Juvenil Tibetano y Estudiantes por un Tíbet Libre "para crear conciencia sobre el Panchen Lama y elevar la voz colectiva contra el brutal gobierno de China en el Tíbet que encarcela a cientos y miles de tibetanos inocentes", The organizers reported in a statement.
The disappearance of the Panchen Lama has provoked international rejection, as China has consistently refused to reveal its whereabouts.
La desaparición de Nyima constituye una "desaparición forzada que viola la Convención de las Naciones Unidas", the National Director of Students for a Free Tibet told Efe, Rinzin Choedon.
According to a report by the United Nations Working Group on Forced or Involuntary Disappearances (Meander,) made in 2012, China assured that Nyima lives in completely normal conditions.
The Panchen Lama is the second most important spiritual leader for Buddhists after the Dalai Lama..
Thousands of Buddhists fled Tibet in 1959 after the harsh Chinese repression against the popular uprising in Lhasa, capital of Tibet, among them the fourteenth dalai lama, which he completed last March 60 years of exile in India. EFE
