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Erkhtemtsel Borjigin, Inner Mongolian People's Party
June 14th, 1997

Taktser Rinpoche, thank you for providing the leadership under which I am able to come before this great audience, to bring to the attention of the world, the plight of the Inner Mongolian people.

Ladies and gentlemen, I come before you, speaking on behalf of millions of Inner Mongols who live under total repression and fear, and in total denial of their basic human rights.

From a historical perspective, the Chinese and the Mongols are completely different nationalities, traditionally separate societies as well as nations. We Mongols have our own national alphabet. Our culture is based on an agrarian, herding lifestyle and our country falls geographically in the northern part of Asia. The Great Wall of China was built over a thousand year period as a physical expression of the separateness of the two peoples.

In 1911, following the collapse of the Ching Dynasty, Mongolia declared its independence. This event opened the door to the eventual creation of the modern state of Mongolia. In 1921, the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party, with the help of the Soviet Union, brought down the so-called "feudal state" of the recently formed Mongolia, and founded the Mongolian People's Republic. Despite the active participation of Inner Mongols in both of these events, the region known as Inner Mongolia was not included in the territory of the new republic, primarily due to opposition from the Soviet Union, and was ceded to China.

Nevertheless, we have never given up on our struggle to achieve independence from China. In the first half of this century, under the leadership of Prince Demchugdongrub, a strong independence movement flourished right through the 1940's. In September of 1945, following a meeting of representatives from all parts of Inner Mongolia, we declared our independence. But this was short-lived. In the face of these independence movements, our country was invaded and forcibly occupied by the Chinese. On May 1, 1947, with promises made to us of "self-government", similar to promises being made to Hong Kong today, an "Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region" was formed under the gun of the Chinese communist army.

Today, as we review the past 50 years of Chinese communist occupation of Inner Mongolia, we Inner Mongols have not seen one day of self-government. Furthermore, the ecology of Inner Mongolia has suffered great destruction, and Mongol ethnic identity is on the verge of extinction. The Chinese colonialists have mounted a policy of ethnic annihilation, and they have transferred 20 million Chinese peasants from other provinces of China into Inner Mongolia. Fifty years ago, the population of Inner Mongolia was 80% Mongol. In 1996, it was only 14% Mongol. We have become a minority in our own lands. The rampant farming of our grasslands has turned 150,000 square kilometers of pastures into desert. More than 1,500 Buddhist temples and memorials have been destroyed, and more than 600,000 Mongols have been killed or maimed through campaigns of ethnic violence directed against the Mongols.

Inner Mongolia is rich in natural resources, such as coal, oil, timber and minerals. These have been ceaselessly exploited by the Chinese occupiers, transported out of our lands, with little direct benefit to our people. In their place, they have dumped their nuclear wastes and poisoned our environment. Future generations of Mongols will show the deadly health effects of the massive burial of poisonous nuclear wastes in our land.

Nevertheless, we will continue to struggle for our freedom. Demonstrations opposing the communist Chinese rule have taken place since 1981, when the first student protests broke out in the capital of Inner Mongolia, Khokekhota. These students were expressing their condemnation of those responsible for the thousands of Mongols who had been killed and tortured during the cultural revolution of the 1960's and 70s. Today, throughout Inner Mongolia, small groups continue to oppose the occupation of Inner Mongolia. Groups such as "The Democratic Alliance of Southern Mongolia", organized by Hada and Tegexi, "The Association of Mongols" in Bayannuur province, "The Association of Mongolian National Culture" organized by Huchintegus and Wang Manglai in Yikhe Zuu province and others similar to these bear witness to our continuing struggle today against the forces of oppression, even in the face of severe punishment by the Chinese authorities. The fact is that all Chinese know that Mongolia is forcibly occupied by the Chinese. Up until now, they have succeeded in perpetuating their big lie, about "self government" for Inner Mongols. It has not happened and it cannot happen for as long as we are forcibly occupied and denied our human rights.

Therefore, on the basis of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we call upon the good-hearted of the world to join with us in our demands for freedom and justice for our people :

1. support economic sanctions against the government of China until such time as they recognize the freedom of Inner Mongolia, Tibet and Eastern Turkestan,
2. respect the human rights of the Mongols to practice their customs,
3. stop the policy of genocide and assimilation,
4. stop all nuclear testing,
5. stop the policy of mass population transfer of Chinese into our lands,
6. immediately release all prisoners of conscience, including Hada and Tegexi,
7. establish a day of mourning marking that fateful day, May 1, 1947, when the CPC created the autonomous region of Inner Mongolia.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is the plight of my people. Please lend us your moral support. Now on behalf of the Mongols of China, I will remove one more star from the flag of the PRC, so that the world will know that we Mongols do not belong to China.

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