Jakarta - Indonesian President Joko Widodo is departing for four countries in Africa and this will be his first visit as President to the African region.
President Jokowi conveyed this in a press statement at Kualanamu International Airport, North Sumatra, Sunday.
"Today I and a limited delegation will leave for Africa. We will visit four countries, namely Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique and South Africa. This is my first visit as President to the African region," said President Jokowi as witnessed in a virtual broadcast from Presidential Secretariat YouTube account, Sunday.
President Jokowi said that his visit to the continent was because Indonesia and Africa had a long historical relationship.
Considering that Indonesia was the initiator and host of the Asian-African Conference in 1955.
According to the President, the conference which was held in Bandung also played an important role in giving birth to the non-aligned movement.
"It is the Spirit of Bandung that I will bring with me on a visit to Africa by strengthening solidarity and cooperation among the Global South countries," said the President.
The Head of State explained the reasons for visiting four countries in Africa, especially Kenya and Tanzania having opened their embassy offices in Jakarta last year.
The President sees this as the commitment of the two countries to continue to strengthen cooperation with Indonesia.
Meanwhile, Mozambique is the first African country where Indonesia has a Preferential Trade Agreement.
After visiting the country, the President also attended the invitation to the BRICS Summit which is a group of developing countries consisting of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS).
On the sidelines of the BRICS Summit which was held in Johannesburg, South Africa on August 22-24, the President of course held various bilateral meetings with other heads of state.
The President and the delegation will return to Indonesia on August 25.
A number of ministers accompanied President Jokowi to Africa from Kualanamu Airport, namely the Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, Cabinet Secretary Pramono Anung and Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Arifin Tasrif, while Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi had already left for Africa.
Interview with the head of the IIMM, which is collecting evidence of the Myanmar (Burma) military's crimes : RFA
In terms of the number of crimes that violate international law in Myanmar, Nicholas Kumjan, the head of the UN's independent investigative mechanism for Myanmar, said that it is increasing in terms of severity. RFA member Ko Ye Khao Myint Maung asked about IIMM's efforts to collect evidence related to ongoing crimes in Myanmar.
RFA: Thank you for allowing me to ask this question. IIMM has released a report for this year regarding ongoing crimes in Myanmar. What unique findings do you have for this year?
In my opinion, In this year's report, the number of crimes committed in Myanmar has increased. The crimes committed are also becoming more serious. The fact that it continues to increase all these years is the most remarkable thing. Our team was formed by the United Nations Human Rights Council to collect evidence of Myanmar's worst international crimes. It is sad to say that such crimes are increasing more and more in Myanmar. Since the military coup, the number of people who have been victims of terrorist attacks has increased every year. We see an increase every month. Now, in the report, we talk about the evidence for cases of aerial bombardment of civilian areas. Children because of these attacks Many people were killed and injured, including Also, the number of people arrested and detained by the military. The case of being tortured while in detention; The number of cases of sexual violence is increasing. In the areas entered by the army, both the enemy soldiers and It also mentions the killing of civilians.
RFA: According to the findings of the evidence obtained by IIMM. Where is the direction of the conflict between the Myanmar army and Myanmar?
Terrorist attacks are on the rise. They are not following the most basic legal rules accepted by the international community, and they are doing more and more as they think. During the military conflict, armed organizations On the other hand, it is an internationally accepted law that only the fighters are allowed to attack and not target civilians. Now, more and more attacks are targeting civilians. This is our biggest concern. We are gathering evidence for this.
RFA: Also, in this year's IIMM report, the Myanmar military spoke of sexual crimes against the Rohingya during operations in 2016 and 2017. The report also said that these sex crimes are among the worst investigated by IIMM. Can you elaborate on that?
Our team takes serious investigations into sexual violence. Traditionally, during military conflict, sexual violence has not been reported to anyone. The victims do not want to appear in court. But such cases need to be investigated and action taken. As far as we know from what the Rohingya recounted, These cases are among the worst we have ever seen. This happens, The Burmese military propagates propaganda to make the Rohingya not even think of them as human beings, and casts their soldiers and others to make them not see them as human beings. Again, because of the blood injection. That is why many such crimes, including sexual violence, have been committed.
RFA: Where Myanmar collects evidence for crimes. What improvements do you think the IIMM team has made?
There has been a lot of progress. We have collected up to 20 million pieces of potentially identifiable information. These are analyzed and collected and stored as evidence related to crimes. We were able to publish three reports of our findings. What we are doing is to punish those responsible in the future. They should be punished for their past crimes. This is still a long way to go. Justice at the international level is slow to come. But there are many successful examples. Leaders who once thought they could not be prosecuted were brought to trial. In the end, he was sentenced to prison terms. I have seen them pay for the crimes they committed. (RFA)
Former chief : It is the fate of the nation and those who are paying the price for the nation
As far as we know, Abdulhakim Idris, the head of the Uyghur Research Center in the United States and the former chief prosecutor of the World Uyghur Congress, learned on August 16 that his father, Abdulkarim Zikrullah Idris, had died in January this year. Abdulhakim Idris last met his father on the phone in April 2017, and received news of his death seven months later. The situation faced by Mr. Abdulhakim Idris is actually the ongoing oppression of all Uyghurs who have become the target of China's attack, especially the political activists who are under China's eye, and they are paying a heavy price.
Mr. Abdulhakim Idris accepted our interview and said that he could not meet his father for years and did not receive the news of the disaster in time, while this was part of the oppression that befell this nation.
The executive director of the Uyghur Human Rights Foundation, Mr. Omar Kung, stated that Mr. Abdulhakim Idris's father was also a person who loved the nation and trained his children to have a fighting spirit.
Many individuals and organization leaders, including Human Rights Watch's China chief Sophie Richardson, responded on Twitter, offering condolences to Abdulhakim Idris' family and strongly condemning the ongoing genocide in the Uyghur region.
In recent years, the Uyghurs have been subjected to an unprecedented large-scale, targeted, centralized and systematic genocide by the Chinese government. In addition, those who were forced to seek refuge abroad due to Chinese oppression at home, those who had no doubt that China is targeting and murdering all Uyghurs, and those who realized that it is impossible to live together with China, also showed active activity.
It is clear that the Uyghur political and non-governmental organizations played a major role in bringing the case against the genocide of Uyghurs abroad to the international level, that is, to broadcast the facts of China's crimes to the world, to convince them, and to stop this crime. The fact that nearly 10 Western countries, led by the United States, have declared China's crimes as "genocide and crimes against humanity," the UN human rights agency's investigation report, declaring that "China may be committing serious human rights violations," and the United States' "Uyghur The adoption and implementation of the "Law on the Prevention of Uyghur Forced Labor" and the adoption and implementation of the "Human Rights Law Draft" have contributed and paid the price of the above-mentioned organizations and organization officials and active activists.
It is a brutal reality that speaking out against China, which has become increasingly globalized today and is committing genocide against the Uyghurs, is a very difficult and long-term struggle to expose and stop its crimes. President of the World Uyghur Congress, Isa Sag, while praying for the patience of his colleague Abdulhakim Idris, said that there are few people like him who are working on this road without fear of paying the price, without burning, retreating, or complaining.
Organizational leaders and political activists who emerged and became prominent during the struggle were, in turn, the target of China's eyes, and China's attacks and persecution on them extended beyond them to their brothers, friends and relatives.
As reported in our previous news, in 2018, the Chinese government abducted Gulshan Abbas, the leader of the Uyghur Movement Organization, Ms. Abbas, in revenge, and sentenced him to 20 years in prison. This news was also known after 2 years. Mr. Shang Isa heard the news of the death of his mother Aygul Amet, who died in the camp, and his father Isa Amet, who died at the age of 86, after several years.
This means that Uyghur political activists are always targeted by China for surveillance, tracking, indirect or direct persecution. But since they are dedicated to the struggle against China, they don't care and are working towards realizing their national ideals. In his speech to our radio, Mr. Abdulhakim Idris expressed that he will continue to fight, turning his grief into strength.
It is sad that the price paid by those who are working and fighting for the nation is being betrayed. Recently, China has changed its tactics and eased the entry and exit of Uyghurs into China. Mr. Omar Kang said that everyone wants to go to the motherland, but in the current situation, coming to China is to comply with the genocide denial campaign, and it is a betrayal at the expense of political organizations and activists.
Mr. Wang Isa also expressed his opinion on this matter: "Let's not talk about the costs paid by activists like us, where researchers who cannot go to China due to punishment restrictions for writing articles for Uyghurs are paying the price, Uyghurs asking for visas from China is a shame and a crime, or at least China is complicit in the crime of genocide. He said.