Published by: The World Uyghur Network News, April 28, 1997

[ETIC, 4/24/97] On April 24, the representative in Sweden of the Eastern Turkistan Union in Europe Mr. Faruk Sadik met with the member of the Swedish parliament's foreign affairs committee Ms. Tone Tingsgard.

Mr. Sadik informed Ms. Tingsgard on the present extremely difficult situation of the Uyghurs in Eastern Turkistan, the Uyghurs complete deprivation of the basic human rights, continuing for more than one year "Strike Hard" political campaign in Eastern Turkistan against the Uyghurs, and the bloody clashes between the Uyghurs and the Chinese armed police in Ghulje (Yining) city of Eastern Turkistan on February 5-7.

In order to provide the Swedish parliament members with the objective information on the situation in Eastern Turkistan, Mr. Sadik proposed to organize a conference in Sweden with participation of the prominent Uyghur intellectual and leader Erkin Alptekin, Tibet's spiritual leader Dalai Lama, and the well known Chinese human rights activist in the USA Harry Woo.

Ms. Tingsgard stressed the importance of obtaining true information on situation in Eastern Turkistan. In particular, she said "The Swedish Parliament addresses quite often to human rights issues of minorities in other countries in the World. Unfortunately, the parliament only recently became aware on the situation with the human rights in Xinjiang.

I will forward your information to the parliament members, in particular, to the members of the foreign affairs committee. I promise you to do my best in making the parliament members and the Swedish public, in general, aware on the present situation of the Uyghurs in Xinjiang."

[Djamshid, Stockholm]