VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Jakarta - People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) Deputy Chairman Hidayat Nur Wahid urged the Indonesian government to not become a mere onlooker in the humanitarian crisis involving the Uighurs, a Muslim-minority group residing in China’s Xinjiang region.

In accordance with the fourth paragraph of the Preamble of the Indonesian Constitution, UUD 1945, Indonesia should be actively promoting world peace based on social justice, he stated.

"It is obvious that the Uighur ethnic group has reeled from social injustice in Xinjiang. It certainly does not lead to a peaceful situation," he pointed out here on Wednesday.

Wahid remarked that expectations were pinned on Indonesia, currently a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council (UNSC) and member of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in 2020, playing an active role in solving the problem.

"Indonesia must not be a mere onlooker. Indonesia must play its role in independent and active foreign politics based on its interest and commitment to our UUD (Constitution)," the senior politician of the Justice and Prosperous Party (PKS) remarked.

Indonesian Vice President Ma'ruf Amin had earlier called on the Chinese government to be transparent and offer access to information on alleged human rights violation against Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang.

"We hope every party, including China, would be more open. China has given an excuse that their camps are not for indoctrination but a type of training," Amin stated at his office on Tuesday.

Amin remarked that the Indonesian government had endorsed the protection of human rights of Uighur Muslims reportedly facing discrimination at the hands of the Chinese authorities.

In the meantime, over 20 nations had called on China to put a stop to its mass detention of ethnic minority Uighurs in Xinjiang region in the foremost such joint move on the issue at the United Nations' Human Rights Council, according to diplomats and a letter seen by Reuters news agency.

In a letter to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, the group of 22 nations, including Japan, Britain, France, and Germany, urged China to end its "mass arbitrary detentions and related violations" and called on Beijing to allow UN experts to access the region. No Muslim-majority nations signed the joint statement.

UN experts and activists pointed out that no less than one million Uighurs and other Muslims were being held in detention centers in the remote western region of the country, Al Jazeera had reported last July. However, China described the camps as training centers, helping to stamp out "extremism" and help people develop novel skills. (ANTARA)