In a rare acknowledgement of the violence wreaked on Ahmadiyah, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono expressed regret on Monday over the attack on Sunday that killed three followers of the Islamic sect in Banten.
The President instructed law enforcement agencies to investigate the incident and prosecute the culprits.
“The violence should have been prevented. But preventative measures seemed to have been ineffective at the time. Law enforcement officials must enforce the law against anybody responsible for the incident,” Yudhoyono told the press.
Three Ahmadis were killed while five others were severely injured after hundreds of angry residents attacked Ahmadiyah followers in Umbulan village, Pandeglang regency, Banten, on Sunday morning.
Yudhoyono’s statement was met with skepticism from National Commission for Human Rights (Komnas HAM) chairman Ifdhal Kasim, who said that the statement was more “lip service” after a series of violent attacks against the Ahmadis.
“After dozens of attacks in the past — in Makassar, in Sukabumi, in Lombok — almost no one has faced legal charges. The government must provide real and immediate action,” he said, adding the Banten incident was a serious human rights violation.
The Ahmadis were relatively safe in practicing their faith under the leadership of Yudhoyono’s successors Abdurrahman “Gus Dur” Wahid and Megawati Soekarnoputri.
An edict (fatwa) confirming Ahmadiyah status as a heretical cult was issued a year after Yudhoyono came into office in 2004.
Prominent attorney Todung Mulya Lubis, a senior antigraft activist and a patron of the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI), said that the incident must be raised at an international forum.
“The government’s repeated pledges have failed to [come with] solutions. They always have a double standard when it comes to violence against the Ahmadis,” he said, adding the attack would be brought before the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR).
A video of the attack has been posted to YouTube, where it has been watched by an increasing number of viewers since it appeared on the Internet.
The video shows a crowd of people stoning and beating two almost-nude corpses believed to be the Ahmadi victims, while shouts of “Infidel!” and “God is great!” can be heard in the background. A police officer is seen trying to persuade the angry mob to stop, but he was ignored.
The Jakarta Post obtained videos of the attack. Some of them show hundreds of people attacking a house thought to have been used as a place of worship by the Ahmadis. Other videos showed people torturing the Ahmadis to death.
Many of the assailants could be seen carrying bamboo sticks and machetes. The end of one video depicts the house’s destruction and a car being set afire.
The videos all show that the attackers wore small blue ribbons.
Andreas Harsono, a consultant for the Human Rights Watch (HRW) in Indonesia, said the blue ribbon might indicate the mob were members of a group or organization. “The police should have taken this as a clue as to who the attackers actually were,” he said.
The police have yet to name any suspects in the attack but National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Anton Bachrul Alam called on the assailants to surrender.
