... Twenty years ago today, the People’s Government, the People’s Liberation Army opened fire on thousands of unarmed students who wanted their motherland to be a free and democratic society. The past twenty years has seen tens of thousands of brave students, activists and intellectuals continue their tireless struggle for freedom, human rights, and democracy on behalf of a quarter of the world’s population, risking their lives. Yet, the Government of China has not progressed in regard to respecting its citizens’ human rights and human dignity. Instead it continues to suppress its citizens and persecute those who express their aspirations for freedom and democracy. The government of China continues to carry out repressive policies toward Mongols, Tibetans and Uyghurs.  Thousands of Mongols, Tibetans and Uyghurs who have struggled to promote and protect their rights to their distinct culture, religious beliefs, and self-determination have been arrested  ...

           ... The first is the case of Mr.Naranbilig, the indigenous Mongolian community leader in China. Mr. Naranbilig was a grantee of the Voluntary Fund last year and invited by the Permanent Forum to attend the 7^th Session. Unfortunately, he was not able to attend it, because he was arrested by the Chinese authorities and placed under 1 year house arrest following a 20-day detention just for attempting to attend the 7^th Session and protecting the rights of indigenous Mongolian people in China. He was charged with the crime of “attempting to collaborate the foreign hostile enemies and engaging in espionage”.We are sorry to inform the Permanent Forum and the Voluntary Fund that your approval letter and invitation to Mr. Naranbilig to attend the 7^th Session were never delivered to him, instead they were confiscated by the Chinese authorities. Now, he is forbidden to travel anywhere, and his passport has been confiscated by the Chinese authorities. The second case I would like ...

           ... Madam Chair, Mongolian people have maintained their traditional nomadic way of life for thousands of years in a perfect harmony with the natural environment. Now, under the Chinese Government’s so-called “Ecological Migration” and “Livestock Grazing Prohibition” laws, grazing livestock on grassland is considered as an “illegal act”. The Chinese Government recently setup a special taskforce called “Livestock Prohibition Team” that is authorized the right to confiscate Mongolian herders’ livestock grazing on grassland and given the right to arrest, detain, torture the livestock herders and issue tickets to livestock herders. Herds of livestock are confiscated and hundreds of herders have been detained and beaten up by the taskforce personnel on daily basis for grazing their livestock on their grazing lands. In addition to these egregious policies, mining or the so-called “opening up” is another problem threatening our community and our natural environment. Hundreds of Chinese and ...

           ... Off a narrow street here in the capital of Inner Mongolia, a middle-aged woman who may well be China's most feared bookstore owner fights a lonely fight. Xinna says that since 1995 she has endured tight controls and harassment by anxious authorities while publicising the plight of her ethnic Mongolian community under China as she awaits the release of her jailed dissident husband, Hada. "The police came by the other day and asked if I was all right, if I had any difficulties," Xinna, 52, said over a traditional meal of roast lamb near her Mongolian bookstore in Hohhot. "I said, 'You know what difficulties I'm under. You created them,'" said the blunt-spoken former philosophy professor. Many of China's roughly six million ethnic Mongols complain of political and cultural repression, saying they have been forgotten by a world preoccupied with similar troubles in Tibet. Xinna, who like many Mongols goes by one name, has become a focus of this dissent following  ...

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