Protesters ‘alter tactics’ in Bogor church attacks

A coalition of human rights groups accused radical groups in Bogor of adopting new tactics to evict members of the GKI Taman Yasmin chuch congregation from their place of worship.

The coalition, consisting among others of the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute, the Wahid Institute, the National Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) and the Human Rights Working Group, said that these groups, including a group called Forkami, had changed their tactics from fanning religious hatred to arguing that GKI Yasmin’s services were disrupting public order.

“In the beginning, these people used religious-based arguments, but recently they have changed their strategy by citing public order issues, saying that the sermons disrupt order in the neighborhood,” Febi Yonesta from the Jakarta Legal Aid Foundation (LBH Jakarta) said during a press conference at the Wahid Institute in Matraman, East Jakarta, on Thursday.

Febi said recently that these groups sang nationalistic songs like “Maju Tak Gentar” (Forwards undeterred) when they staged a protest against GKI Yasmin, whereas previously they had sung Islamic verses.

Febi said that these groups continued to harass and intimidate church members under various pretenses.

He said the groups had been encouraged to do so by the Bogor municipal government’s move to ignore a Supreme Court decision upholding the legality of the church.

GKI Yasmin spokesperson Bona Sigalingging said that the threats against the church members had grown in severity recently.

“If [Mayor] Diani Budiarto continues to defy the Supreme Court ruling and ignores this issue, then the church members will become more and more prone to attacks,” Bona said.

Bona denied that the congregation had disrupted order by continuing to hold services on a sidewalk in their neighborhood. “If he does not want the church members to disrupt order by conducting Sunday services on the sidewalks, then he should have implemented the Supreme Court’s order and allowed the congregation to practise their faith on their own land and inside their own building,” he said.

In its statement, the coalition once again called on President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to interfere in the stand-off to prevent a deepening schism in the society.

“This could lead to an all out conflict in society and the cost could be high,” it said.

The Supreme Court issued a verdict on Dec. 9, 2010, overturning the Bogor administration’s request to uphold a lower court’s decision to close the church.

In a statement released last week, Amnesty International called on the central government to provide more protection for the church.

Initially, the congregation had agreed to temporarily hold services at the Harmoni public hall provided by the Bogor administration in January after the mayor promised to allow them to open their church when the Supreme Court issued a ruling in their favor.

But recently, members of the congregation returned to the street, after the Bogor government showed no signs of obeying the Supreme Court’s ruling.