03-09-2009 Issued by Initiatives for China
Contact: Jim Geheran Tel: 202-290-1423
We recognize this solemn anniversary with both sadness and hope. Our sadness is compounded by 50 years of suffering by our Tibetan brothers. For fifty years the world watches the Chinese Communist government systematically decimate the great Tibetan culture and vilify as terrorists the peaceful people of Tibet and His Holiness The Dalai Lama himself.
Our hope is fueled by the inauguration of a new U.S. president who has called on all peoples to summon their “better angels” and who has recommitted America once more to lead as ”a friend of each nation and every man, woman, and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity.”
Our hope is further nourished by the collective realization that our own struggle for human dignity is inseparable from the aspirations of our Tibetan brothers and sisters. That is only wishful thinking that the Chinese government gives freedom to the Tibetans, and not to the Han Chinese majority or the Uyghurs at the same time. It is also impossible that the Chinese government would give freedom only to the Falun Gong practitioners and not to the underground church members. This is what His Holiness the Dalai Lama concluded as a result of our meeting of last August.
So, while it is the wish of the oppressor to keep us divided and unconnected, we now realize in this year of 2009, which marks so many milestones of suffering by so many people, that our success will come by joining hands with our Tibetan brothers in solidarity with our collective struggle. It is this solidarity best expressed by the timeless words of Martin Luther King Jr. “a threat to justice anywhere, is a threat to justice everywhere”, that will deliver each of us to our rightful state as free human beings.
With deepest regards and love
Initiatives for China,
Dr. Yang Jianli
President
