CUS Executive Director: Uyghur Muslims Need International Attention
Jakarta, MINA – Executive Director of the Center for Uyghur Studies (CUS) Abdulhakim Idris reminded the importance of international attention to the fate of the Uyghur Muslim ethnic minority in China’s Xinjiang Autonomous region which has experienced oppression for 70 years.
“In addition to carrying out repression, the Chinese government removed statistics in Xinjiang at the end of 2019, making it difficult for the world to monitor the existence of Uyghur Muslims in the region,” he said at a press conference in Jakarta onuesday.
Apart from presenting the main resource person, Executive Director of CUS Abdulhakim Idris, the press conference also presented the President of the Indonesian Islamic Youth Cooperation Organization (OIC Youth) Astrid Nadya Rizqita, and Lecturer at the Islamic Association of Islamic Colleges (STAI PERSIS) who is also a Uyghur Muslim Researcher, Imam Sopyan .
The press conference was part of a series of seminars held in various cities in Indonesia from 8 to 18 December, namely in the cities of Jogjakarta, Makassar, Jakarta, Bandung and Medan.
With the theme “Uyghur Plight: Call for Solidarity,” the seminar aims to increase awareness and solidarity regarding the situation faced by the Uyghur Muslim community in Xinjiang.
The CUS Executive Director further stated that his party brought reports and books that outlined the situation in the Uyghurs, discussed Islamophobia, and provided an in-depth understanding of Uyghur history and culture.
“One of the missions of the Center for Uyghur Studies is to study Uyghur history, culture and politics and promote Uyghur literary works and historical figures to the world,” he said.
Abdulhakim Idris also conveyed the results of the UN Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner (OHCHR) assessment of concerns about human rights violations in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region, People’s Republic of China.
“OHCHR voices serious concern about the situation in Xinjiang which increasingly shows the urgency for international action,” he stressed, adding that the UN body’s assessment is a basis for holding China responsible and pressing for a resolution to the human rights violations experienced by the Uyghur ethnic group.
Meanwhile, OIC Youth Indonesia President Astrid Nadya Rizqita stated, through a human rights and anti-Islamophobia approach, OIC Youth Indonesia is committed to fighting for human rights and fighting injustice.
“We as civil society do our duty to raise awareness about the importance of respecting human rights. “Apart from that, we really understand that Indonesia has a free and active foreign policy foundation, and this does not mean that we are neutral, but that we behave in accordance with human values,” he stressed.
He also highlighted the issue of forced labor, where people of the Uyghur Muslim ethnic group are forced to work 12 hours a day and are required to attend Communist Party study classes at night, and restrictions on religious freedom are a serious issue, while their families are detained in camps. concentration.
On the same occasion, STAI PERSIS Lecturer Imam Sopyan highlighted the long history of the Uyghur ethnicity in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region located in northwest China since the 5th and 6th centuries.
He said that the human rights situation experienced by Uyghur Muslims could be categorized as genocide (ethnic annihilation). (T/RE1/P2)
Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)