Nivell Rayda – More than 100 Muslim students from the University of Indonesia staged a rally and "sealed" the Chinese embassy in Jakarta on Wednesday to protest China's oppression of the Muslim Uighur ethnic minority.

The move came after a Chinese diplomat in Jakarta dismissed unrest in the country's western province as "just a brawl" between groups.

The students gathered around 3 p.m. in the Kuningan area of South Jakarta. During the rally, students cordoned off the embassy with yellow tape meant to resemble barriers used by police to secure a crime scene. Text printed on the tape read "this building is sealed by Muslim people of Indonesia."

Ahmad Budi Setia, head of Salam University of Indonesia, the university's Muslim organization, demanded to see the Chinese ambassador, but was rebuffed by the building's security officers.

Chinese Charge d'Affaires Yang Lingzhu met with the chairman of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), Tifatul Sembiring, who arrived hours earlier.

"We are here to voice our protests against the violence against Muslim Uighurs," Tifatul told reporters after the meeting. He also demanded the Chinese government stop using force against the Uighurs and called for a full investigation into violence that has claimed at least 180 lives.

"We want the Chinese to prosecute any human rights violations and urge the Muslim world to show their support for the Uighurs. The Indonesian government must help them through diplomacy."

After the meeting, Yang denied that the riots in China's Xinjiang Province had been fueled by ethnic friction. "This is just a brawl between several groups of people," Yang said. "There is no ethnic violence in the province."

Mosques in the province's capital, Urumqi, were closed last week during Friday prayers. Yang said the move was meant to stem more bloodshed and had been at the behest of "the clerics themselves." "Everything is now under control," he claimed.

The violence began on July 5 when Uighurs protested last month's deaths of fellow factory workers during a fight with police in southern China.