Indonesian Muslims protest against China’s treatment of Uighurs

Sayeed Muhammad of DOT
Hundreds of Indonesian Muslims have gathered outside the Chinese embassy in Jakarta, protesting the treatment of members of Muslim ethnic Uighur minority in China’s far western Xinjiang region. A UN panel of human rights experts said in August it had received many credible reports that 1 million ethnic Uighurs in China were being detained, resembling a “massive internment camp that is shrouded in secrecy”.
The demanded the immediate release of those detained on the “pretext of countering terrorism”, reports Reuters.
Indonesia is the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation.
Opposition groups in the country criticized its President Joko Widodo for not providing enough support for China’s Uighur community.
“The UN must speak out, the OIC (Organisation of Islamic Cooperation) must speak out, Muslims must take a stand against the Chinese government,” said a protester.
China says Xinjiang faces a threat from Islamist militants and separatists. It denies all the allegations of mistreatment, and mass internment, although Chinese officials have said some citizens guilty of minor offences were being sent to vocational centers to work.
China worries that Uighurs went Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria and Iraq to fight for militants.
The Indonesian foreign ministry said it had summoned the Chinese envoy in Jakarta to “convey concern from various parties in Indonesia on the condition of people of Uighur in China” and called on China to respect freedom of religion.