Washington, D.C. August 17, 2013.
The news and images from Cairo, Egypt are heartbreaking, and sadly familiar. In the last few days over 800 people have been killed and thousands injured because they dared to stand up and to protest peacefully against their own government. Our thoughts are with the families of the dead and injured, and we extend our deep sympathy to all the people of Egypt who have been affected by the Cairo Massacre.
Citizen Power for China/Initiatives for China believes that people across the world have the universal right to free speech and to protest, and that they should be able to exercise these rights without being murdered on the streets by their own government. There is no excuse-none-for a government to order thousands of troops to use live ammunition, bulldozers, and tanks against unarmed civilians who are simply sitting in protest.
We have seen these same kinds of tactics used repeatedly in China, most famously in the Tiananmen Square Massacre of 1989, but also more recently. We are not experts on the politics of Egypt, and we are not stating our support of any particular party or outcome in Egypt. However, we clearly and unambiguously state that we believe every citizen of Egypt, and every citizen of the world, has the right to express his or her own views in public, the right to participate in a democratic process to elect his or her leaders, and the right to equal protection under the rule of law.
We can do nothing to bring back the dead in Egypt, but we can claim our solidarity with them and with all people who stand up for universal human rights and the right to nonviolent protest, and we do.
We will remember the victims of the Cairo Massacre; we will hold them close with the dead and injured of the Tiananmen Massacre, and we will remember them as the struggle continues for human freedom and human rights in Egypt, in China, and around the world.