Speech at Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation’s Award Ceremony for Dolkun Isa
by YANG Jianli
March 30, 2016
It is a great honor and pleasure for me to speak on this heartening occasion. I want to first congratulate my dear friend, brother and human rights comrade Dolkun Isa for winning this deserved award. I wish to thank the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation for recognizing three decades of Dolkun’s struggle for the Uyghurs freedom and his remarkable achievements. Under the leadership of Mr. Lee Edwards and Mr. Marion Smith, the Foundation is playing an increasingly important role in helping people around the world seek freedom from the yoke of communist dictatorships as well as other autocracies. It is most encouraging for the Foundation to expand its caring heart and dedication to include the Uyghur people, who are largely demonized by the Chinese government and whose miserable plight is often overlooked by the international community.
Dr. Yang Jianli Speaking on the VOC_s Award Ceremony
I first interacted with Dolkun in 1999. At that time, I tried to expand the Chinese-Tibetan dialogue that we had had for years to include Uyghurs and other ethnic and religious groups but I found, to my surprise and sorrow, that no Uyghur out of control of the Chinese government would want to have any dealing with any Chinese. I made a determined effort to reach out. Long story short, a Mongolian friend introduced me to a Uyghur activist Omer, who is also with us today. I was so excited that Omer wanted to give it a try and put me in contact with Dolkun, then president of World Uyghur Youth Congress. I was thrilled hearing a calm voice from the other end of the phone: why not? Soon thereafter in 2000, we had our first InterEthnic/InterFaith Leadership Conference. I am proud to tell you that we, with our Uyghur, Tibetan and Mongolian brothers and sisters, Christians and Falun Gong practitioners, and activists from Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau, and with the encouragement and generous financial support from National Endowment for Democracy, will hold our 11th InterEthnic/InterFaith Leadership Conference in late April, 2016 in Dharamsala, India.
I would be lying if I said that we, Chinese activists and Uyghur, have had no scuffles in the past years of dialogue or pretend that all the bitterness and distrust have disappeared. Looking back, my heart is filled with profound gratitude to Dolkun, my dear brother, who has provided undaunted visionary leadership at every difficult turn in the past 20 years. Dolkun, you have certainly been one of the few who have turned the impossible to inevitable. Thank you, brother.
When I think of the distances, especially the psychological distances that we have traveled to be here, I am blessedly reminded that even with all the difficulties facing us which, sadly to say, have not become much less daunting than when we first started, so much has already been done, and I believe, with the united effort of many brothers and sisters from both peoples following Dolkun Isa’s example, we will establish the foundational spirit of community that is essential to our labors in and on behalf of the future, indeed, the freedom for all.