DATE=3/1/2000 TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT TITLE=CHINA-TIBET (L ONLY) NUMBER=2-259706 BYLINE=ROGER WILKISON DATELINE=BEIJING CONTENT= VOICED AT: INTRO: A London-based group that monitors the situation in Tibet says Chinese authorities have detained the parents of the Karmapa Lama - the high- ranking Tibetan Buddhist leader who fled to India in January. VOA correspondent Roger Wilkison reports China denies the report issued by the Tibet Information Network. TEXT: The Tibetan monitoring group says Chinese authorities have taken the young lama's parents from their home in Lhasa - the Tibetan capital - and transferred them to eastern Tibet. It says they are under close surveillance. The Tibet Information Network also says that - in recent weeks - the authorities have closed the Karmapa Lama's Tsurphu monastery and detained two of the facility's security officers. China was embarrassed when the 14-year-old Karmapa Lama escaped from his monastery and embarked upon a five-day, 14-hundred kilometer journey across the Himalayas to India nearly two months ago. The Tibetan government in exile in India says he fled to avoid religious repression. The Karmapa is the highest- ranking Tibetan Buddhist leader recognized by both the Chinese government and the Dalai Lama. China says the youth left Tibet to collect symbolic religious implements that belonged to his predecessor and (Beijing) has left the door open to his return. A spokesman for the Chinese government in Lhasa says the Tibet Information Network report is nothing more than a rumor. He denies that the Karmapa's parents have been detained. And he says the Tsurphu monastery is still open and that none of the personnel there has been detained. The report by the London-based monitoring group comes on the day United Nations Human Rights Commissioner Mary Robinson opened a regional human rights symposium in Beijing and called on Asian governments to promote and protect human rights. It also comes shortly after the U-S State Department issued a report criticizing human rights abuses in China, including repression of Tibetan Buddhists. Beijing reacted to the U-S report by accusing Washington of meddling in China's internal affairs and ignoring the United States' own human rights abuses. (Signed) NEB/RW/KL 01-Mar-2000 06:46 AM EDT (01-Mar-2000 1146 UTC) NNNN Source: Voice of America .
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