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Our information: On December 9, 2000 the 3rd ordinary Congress of the "Abroad contacting Committee of the Chinese Democratic movement" under leadership of the well-known Chinese democrat Wie Jingsheng was held on 9 December 2000 in the former capital of Germany - Bonn. Altogether 140 delegates of the Chinese democratic organizations and the well-known persons from the continents of America, Asia and Australia took part in this Congress. The representatives of Eastern Turkestan, Tibet and Mongolia were also invited to partake in the Congress.
The Eastern Turkestanians' delegation at the Congress consisted of 3 persons including a well-known politician and diplomat Erkin Alptekin, a leader of the "World Uygur youth Organization" Dolqun Eysa, a member of the "Eastern Turkestan Information Center" permanently living in Sweden Dilshat Rishit. The Congress was opened by the leader of the "Abroad contacting Committee of the Chinese Democratic movement" Wie Jingsheng who delivered a report on the activities of the Chinese democratic organization during the period of the last two years. In his speech Wie Jingsheng told that as a result of the diplomatic actions in the sphere of human rights undertaken by the Committee the Chinese government met high pressure in diplomatic sphere, that the Committee tried to avert a danger of split between the Chinese immigrant organizations and the Chinese activists abroad could improve relations between the Chinese immigrant organizations. In the final part of his report Wie Jingshen stressed that the behavior of some Chinese activists abroad had revealed activities of the Chinese organizations and led to difficulties caused by the Chinese government, and what is very important extremely harmed democratic movement inside China and in the result the people had lost trust to the Chinese democratic movement.On the first day of the Congress there were discussions on the most sensitive issues as democratization of China and national problem. A representative of the Chinese democrats of the USA Yang Lien Lie said in his speech that the ethnic clashes and independence of the ethnic groups are very complicated problems in the course of democratization, that the ethnic problem would not be resolved before democratization of China and that is why democratization is a common task of all ethnic groups of the country.
Yang Jien Li summarizing his speech said: "We recognize and respect the right of self-determination of nationalities, however those recognizing this right are not persons but collective body. So have not to absolutize it, this is a problem that requires political wisdom, and we must try to avoid making this problem a source for raising of the big Nationalism of the Chinese people that would rely on the Chinese communist government and the those elements supporting despotic regime. The federal system based on federative actions is the best way that could regulate relations between al nationalities living in the democratic country and all ethnic regions, so the Chinese democratic movement has to form united front consisted of all nationalities".
Among those participated in discussion of the national ethnic problems at the Congress was a representative of the "Eastern Turkestan Information Center" Dilshat Rishit from Sweden. On behalf of the Eastern Turkestanians he said that independence is a great goal of the Uygur people and the Eastern Turkestanians do not support any ideas and projects except independence, because the Uygur people oppose the ideas of the Chinese democrats on the projects of "federation", "republic" and the idea of "two systems in one country". He appealed to Chinese democrats to support take explicit position on the struggle of the Eastern Turkestanian people to reestablish its Independent State. He said: " The Chinese democrats are underestimating very important problem. When the ethnic clashes and ethnic opposition would be resolved they have to respect their aspiration and listen to their desires, the problem, in my opinion, should be resolved only through respecting the right of self-determination of nationalities. For example our Tibetan friends demanded 'highest autonomy", but we, Uygurs, claim full independence. when discussing the problem of Independence of Eastern Turkestan the Chinese Democrats must remember that this problem depends not on their decision but on those Uygur people living on the land of eastern Turkestan, because the right of self-determination is the supreme natural right of every nationality, no one collective group defending human rights and democracy, no one organization or person has a right to deny our people's right of self-determination. If you are democrats, you should not announce that the Uygurs will live in the State where the Chinese dominate, because the lands where the Uygurs live belong to Uygurs own lands, we have absolute right for self-determination!" in his speech Dilshat Rishit submitted some suggestions to the Chinese Democrats.
They are 1. To respect each other on the base of equality; 2. To respect the right of every nationality for self-determination; 3. To exert pressure on the Chinese Communist government to respect the "right of self-determination of every nationality" included in the Rules of the United Nations, to unmask the Chinese Communist authorities' policy of suppression and extermination of the Uygurs, and to propagate the idea of self-determination of the Uygurs; 4. To use the name "Eastern Turkestan" in the mass media of the Chinese Democrats instead of the name "Xinjiang" having the colonial meaning and insulting the people of Eastern Turkestan.
The delegate from Inner Mongolia Xi Heiming said, that the Mongols of Inner Mongolia claim self-determination and a huge Chinese population living in this region must not be obstacles for putting this basic principle into effect. He also confirmed that democratization of China is a common task for both nationalities -Chinese and Mongols, because the dreams and aspirations of Inner Mongolians would be fulfilled only after democratization of China. The representative of Inner Mongolia also said that both Kuomintang and Communist authorities had infringed their promises given to the ethnic minorities before coming to power and gave examples illustrating it.
Then he asked the Chinese democrats: "Can we trust promises that you are giving us now?" Another representative of the Chinese democrats from USA Feng Gouqiang also repeated that he personally recognized the right of every nationality for self-determination but the best way was to form federal system.
After the reports on the right of nationalities for self-determination made by the Uygur, Mongol and Chinese representatives all participants of the Congress started active discussing this problem. In the course of discussions a Taiwanese lady appealing to the Uygur and Mongol representatives said: "What is your pretext for secession from China? The majority of the States that come off the Soviet Union is now supplying Russia with gas and oil". The Mongol representative Xi Haiming responded to this question: "Independence is not an economic problem, but a problem of human right and pride, if it was an economic problem we could live much better having natural wealth of Inner Mongolia, the reason of that the Chinese communist government does not want to give us independence is not our poverty, but our wealth".The Uygur representative Dilshat Rishit answered: "Our biggest pretext is our people". |
