World Uyghur Congress 2nd General Assembly

World Uyghur Congress Second General Assembly

The World Uyghur Congress has successfully held its Second Assembly from November 24 to 27 in Munich, Germany. WUC delegates from the United States, Canada, the Great Britain, Australia, Germany, Norway, the Netherlands, Sweden, Turkey, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan attended this assembly. Prominent Uyghur political leader and human rights activist Ms. Rebiya Kadeer was unanimously elected as the new President of World Uyghur Congress.

”I am really delighted to be elected as the new president,” said Ms. Kadeer, who is also the president of the Uyghur American Association based in Washington, DC. ”I promise that I will peacefully struggle for Uyghur people’s freedom and human rights until they have them.”

”Ms. Kadeer’s election marks a new beginning for our freedom movement, and I am confident that she will take our cause to a new level and change the future of Uyghur people,” said Erkin Alptekin, former WUC President.

Ms. Kadeer’s election has given new hope and strength for WUC and the Uyghur people all around the world. Since her release from Chinese custody in March 2005 to the U.S., Ms. Kadeer has never stopped fighting for the human rights, religious freedom and democracy of the Uyghur people who have been suffering under China’s authoritarian rule since 1949.

To retaliate Ms. Kadeer’s human rights activism and silence her voice in the world, the Chinese government arrested her three sons and put her daughter under house arrest in early June. The Chinese authorities even threatened her not to nominate herself as WUC president, or else her sons would be punished just a week before the WUC II Assembly. Today, Ms. Kadeer’s youngest son Alim Abdureyim was sentenced to seven years by a Chinese court on charges of tax evasion and released her oldest son Kahar Abdureyim with huge fines on the same charges. However, there is still not any kind of information regarding her third son Ablikim Abdureyim.

”All my three sons are innocent, and the Chinese authorities knew that clearly” said Ms. Kadeer, ”the Chinese government made clear to the world with today’s political decision that human rights and rule of law have no place in China.”