Source:
https://scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3043748/get-out-china-indonesian-muslims-march-protest-treatment
Asia/ Southeast Asia

‘Get out, China’: Indonesian Muslims march to protest against treatment of Uygurs

  • More than a thousand head to heavily guarded Chinese embassy in Jakarta to condemn Beijing’s actions in Xinjiang
  • Indonesian security minister says government had summoned Chinese ambassador to explain alleged abuses
Protesters in Indonesia at a rally in front of Chinese embassy in Jakarta on December 27, 2019. Photo: AFP

More than a thousand Muslims marched to the heavily guarded Chinese embassy in Indonesia’s capital on Friday to protest against China’s treatment of its Uygur Muslims.

The protesters, many wearing blue headbands reading “Save Uygurs”, chanted “Get out, China!” and unfurled Indonesian and Uygur flags as they marched to the embassy in downtown Jakarta.

In a speech, Yusuf Martak, a protest organiser, condemned the “oppression, torture and cruelty by the Chinese Communist government against brother Uygur Muslims”.

Martak, a leader of a conservative Muslim alliance that held mass protests against Jakarta’s ethnic Chinese governor, a minority Christian, in 2016, demanded an end to mass detentions of Uygur Muslims in China’s Xinjiang region.

“We Muslims oppose all forms of colonialism and oppression of Uygurs,” said another speaker, Slamet Maárif, standing on the top of a truck. The crowd chanted “Get out, Communists!” as some waved banners saying “We stand with Uygurs.”

He called on the Indonesian government to take action to help the Uygurs.

The protesters performed afternoon prayers outside the embassy before dispersing.

Human rights organisations say up to 1 million ethnic Muslims in Xinjiang have been detained in camps where they are subjected to political indoctrination and pressured to give up their religion.

Associated Press reported last year that some are forced to work in factories, and tracked clothing made in one camp to an American sportswear company.

China describes the sites as vocational training centres necessary to fight radicalism in the restive province, and says the trainees work voluntarily.

Protesters gather in front of China’s embassy in Jakarta to protest against the repression of Uygurs. Photo: dpa
Protesters gather in front of China’s embassy in Jakarta to protest against the repression of Uygurs. Photo: dpa

Indonesian security minister Mohammad Mahfud MD on Thursday said the government summoned Chinese Ambassador Xiao Qian to explain the alleged abuses in Xinjiang.

He said Xiao asserted that China is committed to the protection of human rights and freedom of religion.

Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation, is reluctant to publicly criticise Beijing, fearing it could jeopardise Chinese investment or invite retaliatory Chinese support for separatists in Indonesia’s predominantly Christian Papua region, where a pro-independence insurgency has simmered since the 1960s.