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AKARTA: Police in Bogor removed a road blockade near the GKI Church in Taman Yasmin on Sunday following a night vigil held by locals who demanded its closure.

The Bogor Police will maintain personnel in place to prevent locals from attacking the church, which has already been closed by the Bogor city administration for violating a land use bylaw.

Bogor Police spokesman Adj. Comr. Irwansyah said the decision to lift the blockade was made for traffic purposes only.

“We have opened the blockade but our personnel will remain,” he said, as quoted by tempointeraktif.com.

Police had deployed 1,000 personnel to the site following a protest by locals rejecting the presence of the church in their neighborhood.

Police put up the road blockade on Christmas Eve after locals stepped up their protests against the Church. Members of the Taman Yasmin congregation performed their Christmas service by the roadside on Saturday.

Members of the congregation were prohibited from approaching their church, forcing them to hold a pray in front of a police barricade about 200 meters from the church.

Worshipers who managed to perform a service in the pedestrian lane in front of the church on Saturday evening were verbally intimidated by a Muslim group.

Indonesian Legal Resource Center (ILRC) executive director Uli Parulian Sihombing said his organization would bring the GKI case to the United Nations Human Rights Commission. “The case should be used as a consideration to evaluate the human rights conditions in Indonesia,” he said. — JP