UAA hails Nobel Committee’s decision to award the Nobel Peace Prize to Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo
For immediate release
October 8, 2010, 2:00 pm EST
Contact: Uyghur American Association +1 (202) 478-1920
The Uyghur American Association (UAA) congratulates Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo for winning the Nobel Peace Prize, and calls upon the Chinese government to release Liu from prison, where he is serving an 11-year sentence as a result of his calls for democracy, human rights and the rule of law. UAA believes Liu is symbolic of all political prisoners in China, and hopes the Nobel Committee’s action marks a step toward the day when they will be free.
“The Nobel Committee’s recognition of Liu Xiaobo’s peaceful and courageous struggle for reform and democracy in China, which he undertook at the cost of his own freedom, offers hope and encouragement to all of those peacefully advocating for democracy and human rights while living under the repressive Chinese regime,” said Uyghur democracy leader Rebiya Kadeer. “I applaud the Norwegian Nobel Committee for bestowing this honor on Liu, and for standing up to immense pressure from the Chinese government not to award him the Nobel Peace Prize. The Chinese government should embrace Liu as a symbol of non-violence, dialogue and responsible governance. It is a tragedy that instead, Chinese authorities have chosen to stifle this voice for reform. If the Chinese government were to allow freedom of expression and open debate regarding political reform among all Chinese citizens, including Uyghurs and Tibetans, this would bring progress, prosperity and stability to Chinese society.”
In the past year, a number of Uyghur writers and webmasters have also been jailed for their calls for exercising their freedom of speech and calling for political reform. In July, Uyghur journalist and webmaster Gheyret Niyaz was sentenced to 15 years in prison for endangering state security by speaking to foreign journalists.
UAA also applauds President Barack Obama for calling on the Chinese government to release Liu, and for recognizing that human rights and political reform have not kept pace with economic reform in China. President Obama’s statement that “America will always be a voice for those aspirations that are universal to all human beings” reminds us that prisoners of conscience in China, be they Chinese, Uyghur, or Tibetan, have not been forgotten.
The first Chinese citizen and the second imprisoned individual to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, Liu is known widely as “China’s conscience”. An activist and writer who has called for democracy and human rights in China for decades, he is perhaps best-known internationally for supporting Charter 08, a manifesto calling for democratic reform within China that was published in December 2008 and signed by more than 10,000 Chinese citizens. Many of the original signatories to Charter 08 have suffered police harassment, including house arrest, police surveillance and the confiscation of their property.
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