Federation for a Democratic China, 6 June 2013

The World Uyghur Congress (WUC) Youth Branch Meeting was scheduled to be held in Budapest, capital of Hungary, from May 30 to June 1, 2013.

 Unexpectedly, on May 30, the Hungarian police suddenly appeared and took Mr. Umit Hamit, convener of the conference, to immigration office where he was then informed that he should leave Hungary territory immediately. At the same time, the police closed down the building of the World Federation of Hungarians (WFH), where the WUC conference was to take place, for so-called bomb alert. The participating Uyghurs had no choice but leaving. With these actions, the conference was totally clamped down.

As we understand, the Uyghurs to the conference are either EU citizens or the resident permit holders, they may freely travel and stay in Hungary. As a member state of EU, Hungary should protect the legitimate rights of EU citizens for free traveling and assembly. It was a shocking incident that Hungarian authorities expelled participants and closed the conference place by such coercive means and obviously deceptive reasons. All of those behaviors are serious violations of human rights, democracy and freedom.

Undoubtedly, the actions operated by the Hungary authorities were inseparable with Chinese side. In recent years, the Chinese authorities always use economic interests as bait to put pressure on many countries to suppress the Chinese pro-democracy and human right activities in the international community, including art and cultural activities, which are regarded as threats to Chinese communist tyrannical system.

It was reported that the Shen Yun Performing Arts, a performing-arts and entertainment group based in New York, had encountered the same treatment in Budapest years ago while the Hungarian authorities refused some main performers to enter the country and closed the theater. In October 2012, organizing by the Federation for a Democratic China (FDC) and some other partners, the Fifth International Conference on Global Support Democratization in China and Asia was held in Budapest, the event also experienced some unfriendly interference from the Hungarian authorities.

Hungary is a country that had experienced the communist dictatorship. The people still remember the restriction and bloody repression of the freedom of expression. Today, unfortunately, the Hungarian authorities brutally violated the freedom, democracy and human rights principles of EU and itself, and persecuted the human rights in cooperation with Chinese government. We, the Federation for a Democratic China, hereby express our strong protest against the behaviors of the Hungarian authorities.

The Budapest incident has once again proved the output of despotism by Chinese authorities with despicable behaviors, and this is a serious threat to the democratic world and daily life of common people.

We, the Federation for a Democratic China, strongly appeal the relevant EU bodies and international human rights organizations to investigate the incident. We also urge the Hungarian authorities to provide a reasonable explanation for its practice. We ask the European Union and the democratic countries be alerted from this event and take actions to prevent penetrations from the Communist China to the free and democratic world.

Contac Person:

SHENG Xue: President of FDC

1-905-272-2737

[email protected]