各位朋友：
美国总统奥巴马将于下个月访问中国。
奥巴马就职后，美国政府在人权方面的表现差强人意。最近奥巴马又获得了本年度的诺贝尔和平奖，令许多人感到沮丧。但是，我们的思路应该是，如何从正面入手，从我们并不满意的现实中争取更多我们想要的东西。在任何不利的条件下，我们都不能放弃努力。有几位天安门老兵和几位全美学自联老兵协商，提议以居住在中国、美国及世界各地的中国人权人士的名义，给奥巴马写一封信，尽可能督促他在访问中国期间
多做一些和诺贝尔和平奖得主身份相符的推动中国人权进步的事情。这是一个很好的主意。韩联潮起草了这封给奥巴马的公开信，现公开征集签名。
1.请签名者到专设签名信箱[email protected]签名, 由杨宽兴整理签名。
2.请签英文姓名和居住地。
3.签名至10月29日止。
请广为传播并协助征集签名。
谢谢。
建利
October 16, 2009
President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Washington, D. C. 20500
Dear President Obama:
We are a group of Chinese human rights activists living in China, the
United States and the rest of the world. First of all, allow us to
congratulate you on winning the Nobel Peace Prize. Your commitment to
world peace and humanity deserve recognition and we stand firmly with
you in these efforts.
Nowhere is the need for democracy more important than in China. We
are writing to urge you to step up, rather than retreat from,
America's human rights position as you prepare for your visit to China
in November.
We are particularly alarmed at the retreat from even the discussion of
human rights by high-level U.S. officials, including Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Add to that
your recent decision to postpone your meeting with His Holiness the
Dalai Lama, and the overall impression at home and abroad is that the
U.S. will no longer be the leader on human rights.
Chinese human rights activists in the U.S. and in China are confused
by these messages. Human rights concerns have long been the
cornerstone of the United States foreign policy, and U.S. advocacy has
been critical to incremental improvements in many countries including
China. Abandonment of this cornerstone of U.S. engagement will not
only damage America's reputation, but more importantly, it will
demoralize the millions of Chinese who are fighting daily for their
basic rights and freedom. It can also jeopardize the chances for
China's peaceful transition to democracy, resulting in long-term
strategic problems for the United States in the future. We stand
wholeheartedly behind engagement with China, but it must be principled
engagement, firmly rooted in American values.
We therefore ask you to unequivocally re-state America's human rights
policy to the Chinese leaders as well as to the Chinese people during
your November visit, and emphasize that fundamental improvement of
US-China relations depends on China's progress on human rights.
Specifically, we ask you to use your power of persuasion and your
skill in international diplomacy to address the following issues:
1. Request the release of political prisoners and rights-defense
journalists (suggested list attached);
2. Attend a family church service (we can suggest a specific church)
while you are in Beijing, and urge the Chinese Government to stop the
persecution of family churches and other religious groups such as the
Falunggong;
3. Host a meeting with human rights groups and rights advocates in the
American Embassy (list attached);
4. Urge the Chinese government to publicly address the real history of
the June 4, 1989 massacre and redress the injustice suffered by those
who died or were injured.
5. Encourage greater dialogue between the Chinese government and the
Dalai Lama, and between the Chinese government and the Uyghurs, and
call for an independent, open, fair, judicial process for cases
related to the events of 3/14/2008 and 7/5/2009.
At Tiananmen Square in 1989 many among us were modeling our efforts on
American democracy. We believe the above steps represent minimum
efforts that you can do to get the human rights dialogue back on track
and reestablish America's leadership on human rights.
Sincerely yours,
--
公 民 力 量
杨 建 利
哈佛大学 高级研究员
YANG Jianli
President, Initiatives for China
Fellow, Harvard University
658 Washington Street
Brookline,MA 02446, USA
Tel: (617)735-9133 Fax:(617)495-8180
www.initiativesforchina.org
www.gongminliliang.com
www.yangjianli.com