For immediate release

March 10, 2010, Munich, Germany

Contact: World Uyghur Congress +49 89 5432 1999

Rebiya Kadeer, the President of the World Uyghur Congress express their deepest gratitude to His Holiness The Dalai Lama for raising awareness of the Uyghurs’ plight during his speech to 3,000 Tibetans in Dharamsala, India today on Tibet Uprising Day, as well as for His Holiness’ many  years of support for the Uyghur people. 

Rebiya Kadeer, the President of the World Uyghur Congress, released the following statement:

“Like millions of people around the world, I consider His Holiness The Dalai Lama one of the greatest human rights champions in history and one of the most peaceful, most loving individuals who has ever lived.  Knowing His Holiness has been one of the greatest privileges of my life.  I want to thank His Holiness on behalf of the Uyghur people, and on behalf of myself, for calling attention to our abysmal human rights situation in his speech today in Dharamsala and for the long history of support and love that His Holiness has given to Uyghurs. 

Uyghurs and Tibetans share an especially strong bond and understanding, which emanates from the starkly similar ways in which the Uyghur and Tibetan people are repressed and victimized by the Chinese government.  The fates of the Uyghur and Tibetan people are inextricably intertwined.  We will always be there for our Tibetan sisters and brothers and we know that they will always be there for us.  Our peoples will continue to work together, to protest together, to rally together, to march together, and to campaign together to stop the horrific political, religious, and cultural repression to which the Chinese government subjects us and to obtain the rights and the freedoms to which we are entitled as members of the human race.”