Agnostic_Indian
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Experts and organizations promoting human rights and fundamental freedoms for the people of Xinjiang, Tibet and Inner Mongolia, as well as Chinese democracy activists and human rights defenders, met in Geneva from 11-13 March 2013, in a spirit of openness and common commitment to support the implementation of international human rights standards and norms by the People´s Republic of China.The conference “Promoting Human Rights, Democracy and Freedom in East Turkestan, Tibet, Southern Mongolia and the People´s Republic of China” was organized by the World Uyghur Congress, Society for Threatened Peoples and Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization.Rebiya Kadeer, the 2004 Rafto Prize laureate*from Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China, is currently a President of the World Uyghur Congress. The Rafto Foundation has followed up Rebiya Kadeer and the issue of Uyghurs since the Rafto Prize award to Mrs. Kadeer in 2004.Anti-Terrorism measuresParticipants vividly bore witness to the worsening situation in Xinjiang, Tibet and Inner Mongolia since 2008, especially the aggressive use of Anti-Terrorism measures in Xinjiang and Tibet. The dramatic intensification of the police-state measures with its intrusive surveillance and brutal repression of dissent, peaceful expressions and peaceful assembly, military-occupation-style checkpoints and night-time house-to-house raids. *People also experience political executions, extrajudicial killings, custodial deaths, large-scale enforced disappearances, *arbitrary detention of young men and increased number of political prisoners in Xinjiang and Tibet, forced eviction of nomads into ‘Socialist Villages’ in Tibet and Inner Mongolia, military occupation of Tibetan Buddhist monasteries, nunneries and religious institutions.Transfer of Chinese settlersIn addition to the continuing grave human rights violations, including torture, arbitrary arrests and unfair trials, China’s assimilationist education and employment policies themselves contain elements of cultural genocide. Today the policy of population transfer of Chinese settlers is one of the biggest threats to the very survival of the religious, cultural and national identity of Uyghurs, Tibetans and Mongolians.The conference discussed the increasing harshness of China’s policies and the government’s failure to recognize that these policies are causing unconscionable sufferings for Uyghurs, Tibetans and Mongolians in their homelands, and increasing ethnic tensions and grievances.United NationsThe conference called upon the international community and the United Nations human rights mechanisms to hold the government of China accountable for its systematic suppression of the rights of its citizens.In Geneva, Arne Liljedahl Lynngård, Rafto Advisor on Minority Issues in China, requested the international community to remind China’s new leadership that the Chinese government cannot escape from their duties which various international agreements regulate and which a sovereign state should obey.“China’s new leadership and the world community should be aware that if the impending threat to Uyghur, Tibetan and Mongolian cultural survival is not neutralized, the minority issue will continue to exist” Mr. Lynngård stated.Outreach to the Chinese peopleThe conference participants pledged to renew their efforts to build a common ground to act on short-term and long-term strategies that will address the current totally unacceptable situation. *They strongly agreed that such actions should follow parallel tracks, endorsing the idea that each people should work on its own behalf, as well as with others through joint initiatives, and in cooperation with international friends and supporters.Finally, the conference, while taking note of a growing number of Chinese who understand the suffering of Uyghurs, Tibetans and Mongolians, agreed that more outreach to the Chinese people is crucial.You can read the conference declaration*here.
The crisis in Xinjiang, Tibet and Inner Mongolia is a sign of a Chinese policy failure | Uyghur American Association
The crisis in Xinjiang, Tibet and Inner Mongolia is a sign of a Chinese policy failure | Uyghur American Association
