KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia will resolve issues relating to the 11 Uighur Muslims who are currently detained in the country through diplomatic channels with all involved parties.
Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, who is also the home minister, expressed hope that an amicable solution would be reached without slighting any quarters with interests in the case.
“The case is currently jointly managed with Thailand, where some of them (Uighurs) are being detained there (as well).
“We will take an approach which will not spurn the sentiments of the countries (involved in the issue). It will be the best of solutions.”
To a question, Zahid denied that he was inferring a possible deportation of the Uighurs to Thailand.
“I did not say that, but we will have further discussions which will broach on matters relating to diplomacy and security with the countries involved.
“We also take into account the sentiment of humanitarian rights groups in the region and the rest of the world,” Zahid told a press conference today after the soft launch of International Exhibition on National Security for Asia.
A total of 20 Uighur men broke free from an immigration detention centre in Sadao, southern Thailand in November last year, after spending months drilling holes on centre's wall and escaped to the nearby jungles in Thai-Malaysia border.
Eleven of them were reportedly arrested by Malaysian authorities.
Bangkok had said between 100 to 200 Uighur were currently detained in Thailand.
The Uighur are a Turkic ethnic group living in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region in China.