Eastern Turkistan National Freedom Center, 6/15/97

By Anwar Yusuf

Published by: THE WORLD UYGHUR NETWORK NEWS, July 1, 1997

I am pleased to report that Eastern Turkistanis, Tibetans and Mongolians joined in a rally before the United Nations on June 14 to protest China's occupation of our homelands. Taiwanese also participated in the demonstration.

The rally was the end of the three month long march led by the Dalai Lama's brother to draw attention to the repression of Tibetans, Eastern Turkistanis and Mongolians. The march began in Toronto and ended in New York before the U.N.

At the U.N. rally. a representative of each occupied nation cut one star from the Chinese flag to symbolically send the message that we do not belong inside China. I was honored to be asked to speak and cut out one of these stars to represent Eastern Turkistan.

We brought the stars representing each of our nations to the U.N. headquarters. We also tried to present the flag -- minus the smaller stars -- to China's embassy in New York, but naturally no one answered the door. We did leave the flag, went away, and then quickly returned. The flag had been taken in by the Chinese.

Those of us representing our nations confirmed the value of working together against the Chinese authorities. Tibetans, Mongolians, Taiwanese and Eastern Turkistanis made clear publicly and privately that we will continue to support each other in this struggle for independence. Please, visit (www. Rangzen. Com) in internet for detailed information about the event.