GOVT MUST LODGE NOTES OF PROTEST WITH CHINA :EGGI

Jakarta, July 12 (ANTARA) - The Indonesian Muslim Workers Association (PPMI) Sunday urged the government to lodge notes of protest with China against a ban on Muslim Uighurs in Xinjian region to perform their Friday prayers.

"As the world's largest Muslim country, Indonesia must urge the Chinese government to stop the violence (in the region) and allow Muslim Uighurs to resume services at their mosques," the chief of the association's law-making body, Eggi Sudjana, said.

Eggi expressed hope that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) would phone Chinese leaders to take legal measures against security personnel involved in the torture of Muslim Uighurs and the closure of mosques for Friday prayers.

"This is the first test for SBY in the wake of presidential and vice presidential election," he said.

He expressed hope Yudhoyono should hold a dialog with Indonesian Muslim figures to prevent the incident from influencing Indonesian Muslims to take a retaliatory act.

"We fear the case will expand to sensitive issues such as racial and religious ones in Indonesia," he said.
Violence erupted last Sunday in Uruqmi, capital of China's Xinjiang region, where Muslims make up the majority group.

The official Xinhua news agency quoting the regional government reported last Saturday the death toll from violence in Urumqi had risen to 184.

Earlier in the day, Indonesian Ambassador to China Sudrajat said the Indonesian government would never interfere in the Uruqmi violence.

"What happened in Xinjiang is China's internal affair. We respect China's sovereignty over the region and will never meddle in the problem," he said.

Sudrajat said he believed China would be able to deal with the unrest based on its law and thus, social life there would soon return to normal.

Indonesia had always stuck to its principle of non-intereference in China's internal affairs, be it separatism in Xinjiang, Tibet or Taiwan, he said.***3***