Chinese-Indonesian Muslims criticize China over Urumqi unrest

Jul 10, 2009, 7:04 GMT

   Jakarta - Ethnic Chinese Muslims in Indonesia have criticized China for what they called the persecution of Uighurs and urged the Muslim world to take action, a report said Friday.

   At least 156 people were killed and more than 1,000 injured in clashes involving Han Chinese and Uighur Muslims in China's Xinjiang province this week.

   But Uighur exile groups said that up to 800 people have died in the violence, many of them Uighurs shot or beaten to death by police.

   'They (the Uighurs) have long been persecuted, but they are neglected,' Steven Indra Wijaya, a spokesman for the Indonesian Chinese Muslim Association (PITI), told The Jakarta Post daily.

   'We are calling on all Muslims to cast aside their [ethnic] identities and help the Uighurs,' he said.

   The riots broke out after thousands of Uighurs rallied to protest the killing of two fellow Uighurs at a factory in Guangdong.

   Tifatul Sembiring, chairman of the Justice and Prosperity Party, Indonesia's largest Islamic party, also condemned the killing of Xinjiang Muslims.

   'As a member of the international community, China has to stop all actions that lead to rights violations,' he was quoted as saying by the Post. Chinese President Hu Jintao on Thursday called for stability in the Xinjiang region and said organizers of recent rioting had links to 'separatism' and international terrorism.

   Xinjiang's population of about 20 million includes about 8 million Uighurs and more than 10 million Han Chinese, China's dominant ethnic group.