Declaration of Independence of the Nations of High Asia: Tibet, East Turkistan
and Inner Mongolia
NATIONS OF HIGH ASIA DECLARE INDEPENDENCE IN U.S. CONGRESS
Friday, September 22, 2006 05:08
On 19 September 2006, the Declaration of Independence of the Nations of High
Asia: Tibet, East Turkistan and Inner Mongolia was read out in a conference room
at the Capitol Building of the US Congress in Washington D.C.
The occasion was a two-day conference of the Asian Freedom Coalition attended by
Temtsiltu Shobtsood, Chairman, Inner Mongolian People's Party; Sonam Wangdu,
Chairman, US Tibet Committee; Wei Jingsheng, Chairman, Overseas Chinese
Democracy Foundation; Dr. Wen-Yen Chen, Executive Director, Formosa Association
for Public Affairs; Jamyang Norbu, spokesperson, Rangzen Alliance; Alim Seytoff,
General Secretary, Uyghur American Association; Huang Ciping, Secretary-General,
Overseas Chinese Democracy Coalition; Ye Ning, Chairman, Free China Movement
Foundation; Dr. Quan Q. Nguyen, Chairman, International Committee For Freedom
and Human Rights in Vietnam, and a number of other delegates. Member of the US
Congress, Congressional staffers and media representatives attended the
conference in its concluding session on the afternoon of the 19th.
Dolkun Isa, Secretary General, World Uyghur Congress, who flew into Washington
DC, from Germany was unable to attend the conference. It is believed that
because of his courageous struggle for Uyghur independence, Beijing had
pressured the US government to view him as undesirable. Nevertheless the
conference successfully took place and after two days of deliberation the
delegates unanimously agreed to form the Asian Democracy Alliance, to promote
freedom, democracy and human right in Asian nations presently under repressive
and non-democratic rule.
The conference was addressed by Congressman Frank Wolf who spoke at length on
the problems faced by Mongolia, East Turkistan and Tibet. He spoke of his visit
to Tibet and how Chinese immigration was threatening the very existence of the
Tibetan people. The Congressman said it was good that all the various groups
were now working together. He said the Tibetans had kept up a unified front but
others should forgo ego and internal differences to work together to defeat the
common enemy, Communist China, which he said he was confident would fall in the
next few years.
The declaration of independence was signed by the representatives of Inner
Mongolia, Tibet and East Turkistan, and was also signed by the Taiwan
representative since the declaration made a major reference to the threat that
independent and democratic Taiwan was facing from China. All other delegates,
including the Chinese, unanimously supported the declaration and the aspirations
of the people of these nations for freedom and independence.
After the conference the various leaders and delegates spoke to the media.
Leading Chinese dissident, and ¡§Father of Chinese Democracy¡¨, Wei Jingsheng,
said that the Declaration of Independence was timely and important now since
Beijing had clearly demonstrated by its hard-line rejection of the Dalai Lama¡¦s
call for dialogue that it was not open to any compromise solution to the Tibet
issue, or even a genuine discussion on the matter.
Declaration of Independence of the Nations of High Asia
Inner Mongolia, East Turkistan and Tibet
There is a rare and defining moment in human history when a crushing and
seemingly permanent tyranny reveals on the surface of its implacable structure
the first tiny cracks of impending collapse ¡X allowing the first stirrings of
hope among long oppressed peoples and subjugated nations. Such a transition was
heralded in Eastern and Central Europe and parts of Central Asia by the fall of
the Berlin Wall.
For the people of Inner Mongolia, East Turkistan and Tibet such a moment may be
at hand. China¡¦s economic boom has created enormous and irresolvable problems
and conflicts that threaten to tear Chinese society apart. Endemic official
corruption, desperate peasant uprisings, large-scale labour unrest, harsh
religious repression, ever-widening economic disparity, ecological devastation,
absence of legal recourse to justice and the almost non-existence of civil
society, have been the cause, according to official Chinese reports, of over
45,000 demonstrations and riots, many violent, all over China in the last year.
The Tibetans, the Uyghur people of East Turkistan and Mongols have traditionally
desired only to live in freedom in their own independent homelands, but this
desire has been thwarted and crushed by Communist China for over fifty years. It
is a matter of history that Communist China invaded Tibet in 1949-50
overpowering and smashing a small Tibetan army defending its homeland. It is
also the case that East Turkistan and Inner Mongolia were forcibly occupied by
Communist troops in 1949. In no case did Communist China¡¦s rule in these
countries come about through the consent of the people or even through an
accident of history.
Since then China has systematically undermined the ancient way of life of these
peoples, first doing away with their legitimate governments, and then
imprisoning, torturing and executing many of their traditional rulers,
chieftains and spiritual leaders. When the people of these nations refused to
accept these injustices and depredations, the Chinese Communist army and State
Security organs crushed all such resistance with overwhelming violence. Millions
of Tibetans, Uyghurs and Mongols were killed. Millions more were imprisoned or
deported to forced labour camps (laogai). The people in these lands had, in the
past, enjoyed a sufficiency in basic needs, but now the policies of the
Communist government caused widespread crop failure, recurring famines and mass
starvation where millions of people especially women, children and the elderly
perished.
Under the slogan of revolutionary ¡§struggle¡¨ (douzheng), the Communist
administration in these regions coerced and forced the people to spy on and
inform on each other, often employing even children to report on their parents
and participate in public denunciations and ¡§struggles¡¨. All customary, in fact
universal, human values of friendship, hospitality, trust, respect, tolerance,
peace and compassion were regarded by the Communist authorities as ¡§feudal¡¨ and
¡§counter-revolutionary¡¨.
During the years of the ¡§Cultural Revolution¡¨, people were compelled to destroy
their own temples, monasteries, and mosques. Nearly all buildings and monuments
of historical, cultural and religious importance in these countries were
demolished and their treasures and art objects looted and shipped to China for
their precious metals or for sale on the Asian art market. The mineral wealth,
forests, water and other natural resources of these lands have, especially in
the last couple of decades, not only been systematically exploited to benefit
China, but have also been thoughtlessly wasted and the environment devastated
because of the extreme policies of China¡¦s leadership.
Right now China¡¦s population transfer policy has flooded Inner Mongolia, East
Turkistan and Tibet with Chinese migrants, completely marginalizing the
indigenous population and making them a minority in their own homelands. Native
craftsmen, small businessmen, workers and even labourers have been near
completely displaced by Chinese immigrants, causing tremendous social problems,
and psychological distress among the native population.
All the while, the informers, the various organs of State Security (gongan), the
State Psychiatric Units (ankang) and the ¡§People¡¦s Liberation Army¡¨ are
relentlessly going about their task of spreading terror throughout these lands
and forcing the submission of their peoples.
We individuals and our organisations assembled here today are firmly behind all
the Tibetans, Uyghurs and Mongols who in their homelands are standing up and
demanding independence, and we mutually pledge to fully support those inside who
risk everything, including their lives, in the quest for a free and democratic
homeland. We appeal to the global community of nations as to the rectitude of
our intentions and do thus declare that Tibet, East Turkistan and Inner Mongolia
are absolved of all political connections to the People¡¦s Republic of China, or
any future Chinese state and government, and shall henceforth be free and
independent nations, each irrevocably committed to a democratic system of
government, established by the free will of the people, and based on the rule of
law and the primacy of individual freedom.
In the case of Taiwan we have a travesty of international justice where a fully
independent, prosperous and democratic nation, is not recognized as such by
other nations, primarily out of concern for displeasing Communist China. Taiwan
may have once been a part of China, but most member states of the United Nations
Organization were at one point or another in their history a part of another
nation or empire. Taiwan was only a province of China briefly for eight years
between 1887 and 1895. Taiwan was, by the treaty of Shimonoseki (1895), ceded,
in perpetuity, to Japan. Whatever the ramifications of its varied history the
people of Taiwan have the right, as do all peoples in the world, to
self-determination; and furthermore through their successful efforts in creating
a progressive and prosperous democratic state have more than earned the right to
nationhood. China¡¦s numerous and increasingly belligerent threats to invade
Taiwan must be condemned by the international community and Taiwan¡¦s right to
independence recognized.
We call upon individual nations of the world and the United Nations Organization
to support the inalienable right of Uyghurs, Mongols, Tibetans and Taiwanese to
independent homelands. We appeal to the United States of America, the first
liberal democratic nation in the world, to give due recognition to the rightful
cause of these peoples and aid them in their noble quest for independence,
freedom and democracy.
19th September 2006, Conference Room HC-9, U.S. Congress, Capitol Hill,
Washington D.C.