Tonight I was very lucky to attend the 20th year of the North County Amnesty International Candle light walk.
First we had a few speakers, the most prominent was Rebiya Kadeer, a human rights activist and former businesswoman in China. She is actually Uygahursan (wugers) a separate country that China invaded just a year before they invaded Tibet. The first picture is of Rebiya and me.
Then we were all give signs that depicted people who had been killed, raped, and detained only for speaking their rights. My sign had a picture of Shi Tao ( shur tawo) who was arrested and detained for using Yahoo mail to send his critical opinions of the Chinese government to others. That picture is second. Shi Tao is still in jail. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ABOUT Shi Tao!
At 61 Rebiya Kadeer is an advocate for the rights of the Uyghur people in East Turkestan (aka
Xinjiang Province in northwest China), she established a multimilliondollar
trading company and worked to provide opportunities for
disadvantaged Uygahurs. Previously held up as a model of Uyghur success,
she fell from government favor after she began calling upon the People's
Republic of China government to change its repressive policies against the
Uyghurs. Kadeer spent nearly six years in prison before being released to
the U.S., after which she has continued advocating on behalf of Uyghur
human rights. Kadeer’s children and other family members have
frequently been persecuted by PRC authorities in retaliation for her
human rights advocacy. CLICK HERE to read more about Rebiya!
Overall it was a very inspiring event despite the atrocities we learned about. It' so much more horrible to hear from someone about their imprisonment or rape than when I read it or see it online. If you'd like to receive e-mail updates from Amnesty International CLICK HERE you can sign petitions and speak your voice without leaving the house, thereby helping others and standing up for what is right.,
Thank you for reading, Leah :)
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