JAKARTA (INDONESIA) – US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Thursday urged Indonesia to turn its attention to the Chinese treatment of Uighurs and said it was the “gravest threat” to religious freedom while speaking to an Islamic group.
During his trip to the world’s largest Muslim-majority country, he hailed the nation’s tradition of tolerance and urged Jakarta to resist Chinese entreaties to “look away from the torments of your fellow Muslims”.
He said China was treating the Uighur minority in Xinjiang province in a brutal manner and lodging them in huge detention centres and forcing some to consume pork during the Islamic holy month. While speaking to the youth wing of Indonesia’s largest Muslim group, he blamed China for separating Uighur kids from their parents and imposing forced sterilisations.
However, Beijing denies mistreating Uighurs and says the camps are not detention centres, but vocational training institutes to tackle extremism and boost development.
China is Indonesia’s largest trading partner and biggest investor and it has begun a diplomatic push to alter the perceptions about Uighurs in Indonesia by offering paid trips for journalists and Muslim leaders to Xinjiang.
Jakarta foreign minister Retno Marsudi said her government has pressed China on the issue of the Uighurs.
Pompeo also expressed concern about the rise in “blasphemy accusations” and discrimination against religions which do not enjoy official recognition, which is a growing problem in the country, according to Human Rights Watch’s Andreas Harsono.
Although Indonesia is pluralistic, it recognises only Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Confucianism and Hinduism.
“Indonesia has a toxic blasphemy law and is planning to expand it,” said Harsono.
“Indonesia continuously discriminates against non-Islam and non-Sunni minorities, as well as indigenous faiths,” he said.
The top US official is visiting the country as part of a regional trip to enhance trade and security ties as tensions between Washington and Beijing are on the rise. He also held a meeting with President Joko Widodo and Foreign Minister Retno in Jakarta.
