T

he Yogyakarta police have been blamed for the rise in sectarian violence in the province due to their failure to treat the incidents seriously.

The statement came from Yogyakarta Governor Hamengkubuwono X. '€œThat is a fact. We all feel that,'€ Hamengkubuwono told reporters at his residence at the Yogyakarta Palace on Monday.

Hamengkubuwono insisted that only through consistency in law enforcement would violence decrease.

Within the last week two incidents of sectarian violence occurred in Yogyakarta, which has long been regarded as a city of tolerance.

A church was vandalized in Pangukan, Sleman regency, and an attack was made on a house where a Rosary recital was taking place, also in Sleman.

Hamengkubuwono said that it was time for the police to take action and to uphold the law. No further dialogue with the groups committing violence was needed, he added, as he had already held dialogue with them.

Separately, head of the Pentecostal Church in Pangukan, Nico Lomboan, said the Sleman regent had to make a firm decision on the license for his church that he had built 24 years ago.

Nico said he and his congregation were forced to worship at the church because they could no longer afford to rent a place to do so. '€œThat'€™s why we returned to the church on Sunday,'€ said Nico, who filed a report on the vandalism to the Yogyakarta Police on Monday.

Local residents and members of the Islamic Jihad Front (FJI) and the Islamic People'€™s Forum (FUI) vandalized the church on Sunday.

Chairman of the local Al-Huda Islamic study group, Turmudzi, said that residents were angry with the pastor and his congregation because they performed prayers at the church, which was still sealed by the regency administration.

Yogyakarta Police spokesperson Adj. Sr. Com. Anny Pudjiastuti said that police had not yet arrested anyone in the case.

Responding to Hamengkubuwono'€™s statement regarding their seriousness in handling such cases, Anny said that the police were serious about handling all crimes committed in Yogyakarta.

'€œThe challenge is we have difficulty finding witnesses who actually saw the perpetrators committing the violence,'€ she said.

Separately, Sleman Deputy Regent Yuni Satriya Rahayu called for restraint from all parties as the administration was trying to bring such incidents to an end. '€œThere will be a meeting to bring all parties together,'€ she said.

A similar call for the police to treat the cases seriously also came from Yogyakarta interfaith organization Dian/interfidei director Elga Sarapung who also called on Nico to approach locals in Pangukan again with the facilitation of the local administration and legal aid institute while waiting for their license to be issued.

Meanwhile in Bandung, West Java, an interfaith community has urged the government to properly deal with sectarian violence in Sleman.

Chairman of the Deklarasi Sancang interfaith forum, Agus Zaenal Mubarok, said that violent acts were not justified by either religious or legal norms. '€œIt'€™s wrong. It harms all parties,'€ Agus said in Bandung, Monday.

He said worship conducted according to an individual'€™s respective faith was guaranteed by the 1945 Constitution.

Separately, Inter Religion Network coordinator, Wawan Gunawan, asked Hamengkubuwono to urge local police to thoroughly investigate the cases.

He said that legal settlement of such cases would give assurance to people in Yogyakarta and other parts of the country.

'€œIf something [wrong] happens in a region that has a strong culture but it is not dealt with thoroughly then similar cases will also occur in other regions,'€ Wawan said.