Please click here to view C-Span on the 20th Tiananmen Commemoration in Washington D.C. on June 4, 2009: 10:00am-2:00pm, organized by Initiatives for China and more than 30 other human rights groups.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s Statement on the 20th Anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Students’ Democracy Movement

On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square students’ democracy movement, along with others who take an interest in Chinese affairs, I respectfully honor those who died expressing the popular demand for the government to be more accountable to its pepole.

The students involved in the Tiananmen Square movement were neither anti-communist or anti-socialist. Their speaking out in defence of the Chinese people’s constitutional rights, in favour of democracy, and taking a stand against corruption, truly conformed to the underlying beliefs of the Chinese Communist government. This was confidently stated by the then party chief Zhao Ziyang. Therefore, the forthcoming 60th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China presents a great opportunity to review the events of June 4, 1989.

Great changes have taken place in the People’s Republic of China since 1989. Today, it is a global economic power poised to becaome a superpower. It is my hope that the Chinese leaders have the courage and far-sightedness to embrace more truly egalitarian principles and pursue a policy of greater accommodation and tolerance of diverse views. A policy of openness and realism can lead to greater trust and harmony within China and enhence its international standing as a true great nation.

THE DALAI LAMA

June 4, 2009

Click here to read the original letter

Fight for Freedom – The Commemoration of 20th Anniversary of the 1989 Democracy Movement in China

Rebiya Kadeer, U.S. Capitol, June 4, 2009

I am very proud today to be in the company of a group of human rights activists and Members of Congress, organized by Dr. Yang Jian Li and Jim Gerehan, to express the voices of the people in China who are oppressed, who are silenced.

We gather together here today to remember the tragedy of the many innocent people who were killed or injured during the tragic events of June 4, 1989 in Beijing. We gather to commemorate the calls for freedom and justice that were made by so many in the spring of 1989, many of them young people, even high school and college students. Many of these young men and women lost their lives, and today their mothers and fathers still grieve their loss. Even today, many of those involved in the June 4 protests remain in prison, simply for expressing their political views. Even today, the Chinese government refuses to acknowledge the wrongs that it committed against its own citizens on June 4.

We gather together here today, Chinese, Uyghurs, Tibetans, Christians and many of our supporters, united in our struggle to bring about freedom and human rights for all people living in the People’s Republic of China. We must continue the struggle that the Tiananmen protestors engaged in until one day everyone in China is free -free to express their beliefs, practice their religions, and live without fear of persecution.

My people are the Uyghur people, and the name of my homeland is East Turkestan. We have been under the rule of the Chinese Communist government since 1949. They named us the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region; they gave us promises, such as self-determination.  Since 1949, we have lost the right to speak, and the right to publish our own literature. We have lost the right to prosper, and the right to gain an education. The Chinese government has even banned our right to give birth.

However, since the massacre at Tiananmen Square, the challenge to the existence of the Uyghur people has only intensified. The Chinese government’s thirst for energy to drive its booming economy and its growing dominance in global affairs has made the Uyghur presence in East Turkestan an inconvenience. The Chinese government is undertaking methodical long and short term measures at this very time to solve the “problem” of the Uyghur people’s presence in East Turkestan. It is happening in every area of Uyghur society, including its politics, economics, and culture.

Wang LeQuan, the “Xinjiang” Communist Party Secretary has called the subjugation of the Uyghur people a “life and death” struggle. This language is reflected in the endemic political repression in East Turkestan. Since 9/11, the Chinese government has used our faith against us and labeled Uyghurs as terrorists to justify crackdowns and security sweeps as part of the “war on terror”.  However, the Chinese government has not produced any credible evidence which links Uyghurs to global terror networks.

Nevertheless, this has not stopped the Chinese authorities from producing a catalogue of human rights abuses. Detention, torture and execution represent the short-term measures the Chinese government has used to silence the Uyghur people. At the same time, the Chinese government has also committed economic, social and cultural human rights abuses to undermine Uyghur society long-term.

A new policy recruits young Uyghur women from majority Uyghur areas of East Turkestan and transfers them to work in factories in urban areas of east China. Under the policy, thousands of Uyghur women have been removed from their families and placed into substandard working conditions thousands of miles from their homes.

Already, hundreds of thousands of young Uyghur women have been transferred from East Turkestan into Beijing, Tianjin, Jiangsu, Qingdao, Shandong, Zhejiang, and other locations. There were 240,000 transferred from the Kashgar Region alone to China’s eastern provinces in 2006. The eventual goal of this policy, as part of the 11^th Five Year Plan, is to transfer some 400,000 young Uyghur women to China’s eastern provinces.

Chinese authorities are implementing a monolingual Chinese language education system among Uyghurs in East Turkestan that undermines the linguistic basis of Uyghur culture. Since the mid-1980’s China’s government has moved in stages towards making Chinese the only language of instruction in East Turkestan’s schools. Over the past five years, government efforts at eliminating Uyghur language schools have accelerated dramatically as compulsory Chinese language education has been expanded at every educational level and every township in East Turkestan. 

Uyghurs are not permitted to undertake Hajj, unless it is with an expensive official tour, in which applicants are carefully vetted for their “obedience to the law”. Confiscations of passports, to the point where very few Uyghurs have passports, ensures adherence to the ‘official tours only’ policy.

Today, the Uyghur people are unable to express their voice to the world; but, even the Han Chinese people are living under the same harsh violations of human rights. For example, although they are subjected to the death penalty at a lower rate than the Uyghur people, Falun Gong and Chinese democratic activists are also being thrown into jails as political prisoners. For the past 50 years, the Chinese government has also been rejecting His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s peaceful and patient demands for the very least of rights for the Tibetan people.

Because of our similar experience under the Chinese Communist regime, Uyghurs stand in solidarity with the Chinese, Tibetan, Mongol people and all people who suffer at the hands of the Chinese Communist Party. The Chinese government’s fierce repression of religious expression and its intolerance for any expression of discontent link us all. A Uyghur, Orkesh or Wuerkaixi in Chinese, was one of the student leaders in Tiananmen Square in 1989 who stood with thousands of people seeking freedom, democracy and human rights.

We ask the Chinese government to respect the rights of the Chinese people, and to respect the rights of the Uyghur, Tibetan and Mongol people and not eliminate their ethnic identities. We hope the Chinese government will not forget that the foundations for peace and harmony are based on equal relations, freedom and true friendship. Without freedom, there can be no real peace.