TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Conference slams racial tensions in Vietnam
Asian Conference of Religions for Peace (ACRP) president Din Syamsuddin says he deplores the growing tension in the South China Sea, which has lead to racial unrest targeted at Chinese people in Vietnam
Change Size
A
sian Conference of Religions for Peace (ACRP) president Din Syamsuddin says he deplores the growing tension in the South China Sea, which has lead to racial unrest targeted at Chinese people in Vietnam.
The unrest has resulted in two deaths, dozens of injured and the forceful repatriation of Chinese nationals.
'Such actions will potentially cause instability and new conflicts in ASEAN and East Asia, whereas these regions have shown developments that are quite significant,' he said in a statement made available to The Jakarta Post on Sunday.
Din said he called on the Vietnamese people to exercise self-restraint and hoped China and Vietnam could resolve their problems peacefully.
The Vietnamese authorities smothered anti-China protests on Sunday with a massive security clampdown after deadly riots triggered by a territorial dispute with Beijing spooked foreign investors and the country's authoritarian leadership alike, AP reported.
Beijing said it had evacuated 3,000 nationals from Vietnam and was sending the first of five ships to pull out others wanting to leave as patrol ships from both countries remained locked in a standoff close to a Chinese oil rig in a disputed patch of the South China Sea.
China also said it would suspend some of its bilateral exchange plans with Vietnam and that it was advising the Chinese not to visit the country.
China's decision to deploy a massive oil rig on May 1 has been widely seen as one of its most provocative actions in a campaign to assert its sovereignty in the region.
The act triggered fury in Vietnam, leading to the worst breakdown in ties between Hanoi and Beijing in years. (ebf)
