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Indonesia called to speak up to China after UN damning report on Xinjiang
Indonesia is facing calls to speak up to China following a United Nations human rights report of “serious human rights violations” against the Uyghurs and other Muslim communities in China’s Xinjiang province.
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The Chinese flag waves behind razor wires at a housing compound in Yangisar, south of Kashgar in China's western Xinjiang region, taken on Jun. 4, 2019. (AFP/Greg Baker )
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s the largest Muslim majority country and China’s trade partner in Southeast Asia, Indonesia is facing calls to speak up to China following a United Nations human rights report of “serious human rights violations” against the Uyghurs and other Muslim communities in China’s Xinjiang province.
The latest assessment by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) concludes that implementation of counterterrorism and counter extremism strategies and policies by the Chinese government in Xinjiang had led to “interlocking patterns of severe and undue restrictions on a wide range of human rights.”
The 45 page report was published on Wednesday, following the previous visit by UN High Commissioner of Human Rights Michelle Bachelet to China in May this year.
The report states that arbitrary and discriminatory detentions of Uyghur and other predominantly Muslim groups in Xinjiang “may constitute international crimes, in particular crimes against humanity.”
In response to the UN report, Abdul Mu’ti, Secretary General of the second largest Muslim organization in Indonesia, Muhammadiyah, said that the Chinese government should be more open to the international community on what it had been doing in Xinjiang.
“The latest OHCHR report must be responded to seriously to improve [China’s] policy toward the Uyghur ethnic group and the people of Xinjiang,” Mu’ti said on Thursday.
He went on to say that the Indonesian government should voice to the Chinese government the importance of fulfilling human rights, ensuring fair treatments, as well as stopping all kinds of human rights violations against the Uyghurs in Xinjiang.
