House members ask govt to show support to Uighur Muslims

REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Parliament members interrupted the House of Representatives (DPR RI) Plenary Meeting to discuss the fate of Uighur Muslims in China. They brought up issues on allegations of violations of Human Rights (HAM) experienced by Uighur people in Xinjiang, China.

Secretary of National Democratic Party Faction, Syarief Abdullah Alkadrie assessed the parliament institutions must ask the government to act on what the Uighur tribe experienced. He considered that Indonesia had to make efforts and steps so that there were no more cases of human rights violations in the world.

"Indonesia as a country that has good relationship with China must take steps so that there are no more cases of human rights violations," Syarief said at the parliament plenary meeting, Jakarta, Thursday.

Secretary of PKS faction, Sukamta in his interuption said that Indonesia respected China's sovereignty. However, Indonesian people wanted human rights, beliefs and culture of Uighur Muslims to be respected.

He considered that so far he had never heard of Indonesian government's reaction to the Uighur case. He urged the government to communicate with the Chinese government.

"I urge the government to respond this case, so that Indonesia as a member of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) can help overcome the problems experienced by 60 million Uighurs," he said.

Previously, the United Nations (UN) urged China to give access to a "concentration camp" in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region. UN wanted to see directly allegations of human rights violations against about one million ethnic Uighur Muslims who were detained, with reasons to be educated to know Chinese culture.

"We want China to be serious about this problem," said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, as reported by CNN on last Thursday (Dec 6).

Bachelet admitted that she was disturbed by the number of reports of human rights violations committed by Chinese officials in the concentration camp. According to those who had been detained there, all ethnic Uighurs who were Muslims were forced to understand the propaganda of the Chinese Communist Party.