The following is a statement made by Enghebatu Togochog, Director of SMHRIC, at the rally:

Good afternoon!

Today, we Southern Mongolians, Tibetans, Uyghurs, Taiwanese and Chinese are here to express our strong protest to the Chinese Government and the Chinese leader Xi Jinping as the United Nations General Assembly is being held here in this building behind us.

As you all know China is a colonial power that invaded and colonized Southern Mongolia, Tibet and East Turkistan. And the Chinese regime is an authoritarian regime that not only oppresses the people of these occupied nations but also oppresses their own people, and even is extending its long arm to Taiwan and beyond.

Today, we talk about terrorism. We talk about ISIS. We talk about extremism. But, the world is still indifferent to what China is doing to the Southern Mongolians, Tibetans, Uyghurs, and Chinese themselves.

Don’t forget, the Chinese regime or the Chinese Communist Party is the largest terrorist organization on earth that is oppressing one quarter of the world’s population. Citizens of China have no basic human rights, no fundamental freedoms!

Mongolians, Tibetans and Uyghurs are arbitrarily arrested, imprisoned and killed for just being who they are; their language, culture and traditions are destroyed, and their natural environment is devastated.

So, we are here to say to the world that Southern Mongolians, Tibetans, Uyghurs, Hong Kongers, Chinese and Taiwanese are standing in solidarity to demand our right to determine our political future, demand out freedom, human rights and human dignity.