To: afn20372@afn.org
From: trinley@churchward.com (Jack Churchward)
Subject: CACCP Weekly 6/15/97
Focus:
Getting ready for upcoming Florida Splendid China Protest demonstration on 07/13/97 to commemorate the second anniversary of the Grand Opening of ChinaTown.
1. Accomplishments
2. Plans
3. Action List
a. Florida Public School District Campaign !
b. Florida Pleasure Passport Campaign
c. Walk for Tibetan Independence
d. Collecting letters/articles
4. Misc.
a. Back from the Tibetan Freedom Concert
b. ICT News update
c. Report on the IMPP's support activities to the " March for Tibet's Independence"
1. Accomplishments
Walked the last day of the Walk for Tibetan Independence Wrote letters
2. Plans
Assimilate incoming data...
3. Action List
a. Florida Public School District Campaign !
http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/1730/fpsd.html
We are putting together a package to send to the green targets and focus on them to start our campaign. Please send in your comments and suggestions.
b. Florida Pleasure Passport Campaign
http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/1730/fpp1.html
The business arrangement between AAA, Splendid China, Bok Tower, Cypress Gardens, and Fantasy of Flight is known as 'Florida Pleasure Passport'.
We have suggested letters to these establishments to ask them to stop supporting FSC. Your letters are still coming in as well as the responses from the particulars named above (minus FSC).
PLEASE TAKE A MOMENT TO WRITE AGAIN.
Addresses for mailing letters
.............................
Bok Tower Gardens
1151 Tower Boulevard
Lake Wales, Florida 33853
Cypress Gardens
PO Box 1
Cypress Gardens, Florida
Fantasy of Flight
PO Box 1200
Polk City, Florida 33868-9417
American Automobile Association
Florida/Louisiana/Missippi AAA
1000 AAA Drive,
Heathrow, Florida, 32746-5080
Phone: 407-444-4000
c. Walk for Tibetan Independence
(see www.rangzen.com for the latest)
d. Collecting letters/articles
Please send copies of your letters to the editors, school board members, etc., so that they can be included in our web-pages. Let your voice be heard. Thanks to those who have mailed your letters in.
Any articles mentioning Splendid China are welcome also, we prefer to re-print in it's entirety so we can't be blamed for an 'out-of-context' quotations.
4. Misc.
a. Back from the Tibetan Freedom Concert
Hi. I just returned from volunteering at the Freedom concert in NYC and there was a huge turnout. Lots and lots of people signed petitions supporting the Holiday Inn/Bass Ale boycott and postcards for Ngawang Choepal and the Panchen Lama. The concert provided an excellent opportunity for us to educate the public about human rights abuses in Tibet and China. A petition signed by 35,000 appeared in Tuesday's Washington Post. Bye-jennifer
b. ICT News Update
International Campaign For Tibet
News Update
June 12, 1997
The Chinese authorities in Tibet have, for the first time, admitted to execution of ten Tibetans in 1996 for supporting the Dalai Lama. Media reports from Beijing today quotes the chief prosecutor Thubten Tsewang as saying that ten Tibetans were executed "after trials in Lhasa and Shigatse, following encounters between Chinese security forces and followers of the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama."
ICT President Lodi Gyari, who is in San Francisco accompanying the Dalai Lama on the last leg of his tour of the United States, has apprised His Holiness of the developments. The Dalai Lama regretted the report about the execution of the Tibetans and prayed for them.
Tsewang said there were 76 public trials in Tibet last year. The Tibet Daily of June 3 carried a report which said 98 people implicated in 47 cases of "threat to state security" were tried last year.
The admission by the Chinese authorities about the execution and trial of Tibetans specifically for their political activities corroborates reports about continued dissatisfaction against Chinese rule in Tibet.
The Dalai Lama leaves the United States today for Sweden.
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The International Campaign for Tibet
1825 K St. N.W, Suite 520
Washington, D.C. 20006
Phone: +1 (202) 785-1515
Fax: +1 (202) 785-4343
E-mail: ict@peacenet.org
Internet: http://www.peacenet.org/ict
Non-profit, Tibet advocacy group
"We must examine right and wrong within ourselves, And the level of our own awareness, Rather than examining the faults, Deeds and misdeeds of others."
From the Buddhist Text: "Sutra of Self-Liberation"
###########################################################
c. Report on the IMPP's support activities to the " March for Tibet's Independence"
"1997 March for Tibet's Independence", organized by the International Tibet Independence Movement started from Toronto, Canada three month ago and on June 14, ended in New York city at the Dag Hammarskjold Plaza by the UN .
The Inner Mongolian People's Party ( IMPP) participated the final day march to show our support to the Tibetan Independence .
The first group of the IMPP supporters joined the march at 9:00 am at the Jay Wood Wright Park ( 175th street and Washington Ave.) in Manhattan next to the George Washington Bridge. The supporters was carrying the flags of the IMPP and a sign of " the Inner Mongolians will always be with you".
they shouted "Independence for Tibet", "Independence for Inner Mongolia", "Independence for Eastern Turkestan", "boycott made in China", "human rights in Tibet", "Human rights in Inner Mongolia" all way down to the 47th street. After a 6 hour walk, the 13 marchers from Toronto, headed by Prof. Thubten J. Norbo from Indiana University ( Prof. Norbo is the elder brother of Dalai Lama) and their supporters, about 600 hundred people gathered in the Dag Hammarskjold Plaza at the 47th street next to the United nations at 3:00pm. A second group of the supporters from IMPP also joined the demonstration at the Plaza. About 5:00pm, a five-star red flag of the PRC was brought at the front of the stage and the announcer announced that the true meaning of the four small stars on the flag stand for the Mongols, the Manchus, the Tibetans and the Uighurs and the flag try to show the sovereignty over those four nations. The announcer announced, representatives from Tibet, Inner Mongolia, Eastern Turkestan and Manchuria will
cut off each of the small stars to show their resolution to be independent and the flag without the four stars will be sent to the Consulate office of the PRC and the four small stars along with the true flags of these nations will be sent to the United Nations. After Prof. Norbo cut off a star, representative from the Inner Mongolia, vice-chairman of the IMPP Mr. Erkh Temtsel made a emotional speech and cut off the small star which stands for Inner Mongolia. ( a the full copy of the speech by Erkh and a copy of an open letter to the United Nations Human Rights Commission were attached) After the representatives from the four oppressed nations ( since there is no Manchurian opposition groups there, the people from Taiwan who fighting for their independence cut off the star stands for Manchuria) the representatives went to the UN and the Chinese Consulate to hand over the stars and flag. The whole event ended at 7:00pm.
Inner Mongolian Peoples Party
Text of Speech delivered June 14, 1997 at the March for Tibet's Independence
Takster Rinpoche, thank you for providing the leadership under which I am able to come before this great audience, to bring to the attention of the world, the plight of the Inner Mongolian people.
Ladies and gentlemen, I come before you, speaking on behalf of millions of Inner Mongols who live under total repression and fear, and in total denial of their basic human rights.
From a historical perspective, the Chinese and the Mongols are completely different nationalities, traditionally separate societies as well as nations. We Mongols have our own national alphabet. Our culture is based on an agrarian, herding lifestyle and our country falls geographically in the northern part of Asia. The Great Wall of China was built over a thousand year period as a physical expression of the separateness of the two peoples.
In 1911, following the collapse of the Ching Dynasty, Mongolia declared its independence. This event opened the door to the eventual creation of the modern state of Mongolia. In 1921, the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party, with the help of the Soviet Union, brought down the so-called "feudal state" of the recently formed Mongolia, and founded the Mongolian People's Republic. Despite the active participation of Inner Mongols in both of these events, the region known as Inner Mongolia was not included in the territory of the new republic, primarily due to opposition from the Soviet Union, and was ceded to China.
Nevertheless, we have never given up on our struggle to achieve independence from China. In the first half of this century, under the leadership of Prince Demchugdongrub, a strong independence movement flourished right through the 1940's. In September of 1945, following a meeting of representatives from all parts of Inner Mongolia, we declared our independence to the entire world through radio Ulaanbaatar.
But this was short-lived. In the face of these independence movements, our country was invaded and forcibly occupied by the Chinese. On May 1, 1947, with promises made to us of "self-government", similar to promises being made to Hong Kong today, an "Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region" was formed under the gun of the Chinese communist army.
Today, as we review the past 50 years of Chinese communist occupation of Inner Mongolia, we Inner Mongols have not seen one day of self-government.
Furthermore, the ecology of Inner Mongolia has suffered great destruction, and Mongol ethnic identity is on the verge of extinction. The Chinese colonialists have mounted a policy of ethnic annihilation, and they have transferred 20 million Chinese peasants from other provinces of China into Inner Mongolia. Fifty years ago, the population of Inner Mongolia was 80% Mongol. In 1996, it was only 14% Mongol. We have become a minority in our own lands. The rampant farming of our grasslands has turned 150,000 square kilometers of pastures into desert. More than 1,500 Buddhist temples and memorials have been destroyed, and more than 600,000 Mongols have been killed or maimed through campaigns of ethnic violence directed against the Mongols.
Inner Mongolia is rich in natural resources, such as coal, oil, timber and minerals. These have been ceaselessly exploited by the Chinese occupiers, transported out of our lands, with little direct benefit to our people. In their place, they have dumped their nuclear wastes and poisoned our environment. Future generations of Mongols will show the deadly health effects of the massive burial of poisonous nuclear wastes in our land.
Nevertheless, the Inner Mongols will not cease their struggle for freedom.
Demonstrations opposing the communist Chinese rule have taken place since 1981, when the first student protests broke out in the capital of Inner Mongolia, Khokekhota. These students were expressing their condemnation of those responsible for the thousands of Mongols who had been killed and tortured during the cultural revolution of the 1960's and 70s. Today, throughout Inner Mongolia, small groups continue to express their opposition to the occupation of Inner Mongolia. Groups such as "The Democratic Alliance of Southern Mongolia", organized by Hada and Tegexi, "The Association of Mongols" in Bayannuur province. "The Association of Mongolian National Culture" organized by Huchintegus and Wang Manglai in Yikhe Zuu province and others similar to these bear witness to our continuing struggle today against the forces of oppression, even in the face of severe punishment by the Chinese authorities. The fact is that all Chinese know that Mongolia is forcibly occupied by the Chinese. Up until now, they have succeed
ed in perpetuating their big lie, about "self government" for Inner Mongols. It has not happened and it cannot happen for as long as we are forcibly occupied and denied our human rights.
Therefore, on the basis of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we call upon the good-hearted of the world to join with us in our demands for freedom and justice for our people:
1. support economic sanctions against the government of China until such time as they recognize the freedom of Inner Mongolia, Tibet and Eastern Turkestan,
2. respect the human rights of the Mongols to practice their
customs,
3. stop the policy of genocide and assimilation,
4. stop all nuclear testing,
5. stop the policy of mass population transfer of Chinese into our lands,
6. immediately release all prisoners of conscience, including Hada and Tegexi,
7. establish a day of mourning marking that fateful day, May 1, 1947, when the CPC created the autonomous region of Inner Mongolia.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is the plight of my people. Please lend us your moral support.
___________________________________________________________
Open letter to the United Nations Human Rights Commission
Mr. Turificacion Quisumbing
Chief of the Center of Human Rights
United Nations
United Nations Plaza
New York, NY 10017
Your Excellency Mr. Quisumbing,
We are writing to you on behalf of the Inner Mongolian Peoples Party, the only existing political organization of the Inner Mongolians --- the 3.7 million Mongols living under the colonial rule of Peoples Republic of China.
In April, 1997, the United Nations Human Rights Commission failed to approve a resolution condemning human rights violations in the Peoples Republic of China. The vote was the eighth straight year in favor of a country which continually violates all of the fundamental human rights, including the right to life, the right to liberty and freedom of movement, the right to equality before the law, the right to presumption of innocence till proven guilty, the right to appeal a conviction, the right to be recognized as a person before the law, the right to privacy and protection of that privacy by law, and the right to have freedom of thought, conscience, and religion, freedom of opinion and expression, freedom of assembly and association. Furthermore, with regard to the many ethnic groups in China, such as the Mongols, the Tibetans and the Uighurs, the Chinese government has additionally violated their rights to exist as an ethnic group.
The United Nations Human Rights Commission, as the worlds highest supervisor of Human Rights, should not encourage a country like China to continue its violation of human rights by letting it escape from international condemnation year after year.
The Inner Mongolians, suffering under Chinas brutal rule, are a major part of a great nation ---the Mongol nation. As a distinct ethnic group, the Inner Mongolians have the right to self-determination and should be born free and have all the fundamental rights as a human being. Furthermore, those Inner Mongolians should enjoy those rights without any kind of distinction based on race, color, language, religion, political or other opinion.
But today, for the Mongols in China, in addition to the deprivation of these basic rights, they have also been deprived the dignity of equal status as a human being with the ordinary Chinese people, just because they are Mongols. The language and the culture of the Mongols have been denigrated as barbaric, simply because they are different from that of the Chinese. The Mongols have been heavily persecuted simply because they have been trying to preserve their endangered cultural heritage. By contrast, many Chinese have been highly honored by the government for their achievement in promoting the Chinese culture. The pasturelands of the Mongols have been wantonly plowed and turned into deserts, and have even become nuclear dump sites simply because those lands are not inhabited by the Chinese. The natural resources of the Mongols have been taken away from them without any compensation simply because these resources belong to the Mongols. The crime of =ECseparatism has been designed specially to target the mino
rities, such as the Mongols. The first victims of ethnic genocide campaign carried out after the Nuremberg Trial were the Mongols in Inner Mongolia and there is still no international awareness regarding the campaign of genocide committed by the government of China during the years of 1947 to 1978.
Honorable Commissioner, we believe that the rights of the ethnic groups are as important as or even more important than the rights of the individual human being. In many cases, millions of people are suffering from the same human rights abuses merely for being a minority of a large nation. The Inner Mongolians, for example, will not have to suffer all the violations of their human rights if they enjoy the taste of freedom. The independent state of the Mongols---Mongolia is a powerful testimony.
Honorable Commissioner, the United Nations Human Rights Commission should not only be concerned with and monitor the human rights situation of the nations which are lucky enough to be the members of the United Nations, but should pay careful attention to the protection of those people, those ethnic groups which cannot yet enjoy the benefits of membership in the United Nations.
There are thousands of Wei Jingshengs and Wang Dans in Inner Mongolia, Tibet and Eastern Turkestan whom the Commission should be concerned about.
Peace will not fall upon the Earth, unless these people have the rights they deserve.
Thank you very much,
Inner Mongolian Peoples Party
Erihe Temtsel, Oyunbilig,
Vice-chairman Secretary General
June 14, 1997, New York
