Former Political Prisoner Honored at Freedom Walk

October 19 , 2008

By Elena Cristiano - for the North County Times

OCEANSIDE ----The Oceanside Municipal Pier was alight with candles Sunday night as several hundred people participated in a “Freedom Walk,” calling for recognition of human rights around the world.

It was also a celebration.

Headlining the event was Rebiya Kadeer, the Chinese political prisoner that members of the North County chapter of Amnesty International helped free. The group chose international justice as the theme for the 20th annual Candlelight Walk for Human Rights in honor of Kadeer.

Kadeer is emphatic that Amnesty International saved her life.

“I can’t even imagine ever leaving that prison if it weren’t for the grassroots efforts of the human rights community, especially Amnesty International,” said Kadeer.

Kadeer spent more than five years imprisoned in the People's Republic of China on charges of “leaking state secrets.” In 2000 she was arrested in a Chinese hotel room where she was to meet a U.S. congressional delegation concerning the conditions of the tribal people of the Xinjiang Uighur region in China.

“My people are terribly repressed,” said Kadeer. “Anytime they try to stand up against the Chinese government peacefully they are arrested, tortured, even killed.”

In a nearly five-year-long battle to have her released, Amnesty International’s North County chapter sponsored an aggressive letter-writing campaign.

It was pressure from that campaign that Kadeer began to notice several years into her time in prison. She says her captors took her out of solitary confinement and gave her a mat to sleep on, allowed her to receive medical treatment and even see her family.

During one of those visits she heard her children say “Mother, they are trying to help you.”

In March 2005, 5 1/2 years into her eight-year prison sentence, Kadeer was released to the custody of the United States for a “medical condition.”

Kadeer, president of the Uighur American Association, is a nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize, an honor that, according to news reports, the Chinese government has insisted she not receive.

The Chinese government has accused the Uighurian Separatists of being terrorists, a claim Kadeer fiercely denies.

“They use the war on terror after 9/11 because people will believe that we are terrorists because we are Muslim,” Kadeer said.

She says that even the slightest suggestion of disagreement with the Chinese government would earn one the label terrorist.

The Uighurian cause was one of many being discussed at Sunday night's event. Virtually everyone in the packed stands held signs calling for justice around the globe.

Claire Messner, a 17-year-old senior at La Costa Canyon High School, said she doesn’t think a lot of people know what’s going on in the world. She plans to attend Mira Costa College in Oceanside next year, and she can’t wait to get involved in programs such as Amnesty International and the Peace Corps to help spread awareness of human rights issues.

The event also featured the awarding of the Digna Ochoa Award, created in memory of the Mexican human rights attorney who was killed in her office on Oct. 19, 2001. The 2008 award went to the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice at the University of San Diego for their “outstanding contribution to human rights work through education, research and peacemaking activities.”