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ome Minister Gamawan Fauzi has defended the decision of the Aceh local administration to close down nine churches, saying the buildings do not have the required permits.

The closing of the churches had reportedly caused hundreds of Christians in the Aceh provincial capital to live in fear.

“It was a permit matter, so it’s actually not closures. I have talked to the Aceh governor [Zaini Abdullah] and he said that the permits were not issued because [the churches] failed to meet the requirements set by the joint ministerial decree,” Gamawan told the press at the Presidential Office on Thursday.

The minister was referring to the 2006 joint ministerial decree on the construction of houses of worship, which has stoked controversy because it was considered not to be in line with the spirit of religious tolerance.

“If [the churches] had managed to provide all the documents and met other requirements of the decree, the permits might have been issued. Just stick to the decree,” said Gamawan, who is also a former governor of West Sumatra.

“Besides, many of [the churches] were actually not buildings designated to be houses of worship. Some were houses utilized for religious services,” he added.

Gamawan’s statement came only one week after President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono underlined the importance of the roles played by leaders and religious figures in solving various conflicts taking place across the country.

“As the head of state, I invite and urge leaders and religious figures to guide people and apply their religious teachings as properly as possible,” he said in his speech at a commemorative ceremony celebrating the centenary of a Catholic church in Manggarai regency, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), on Friday last week.

The President said that leaders and religious figures should continuously strive to seek peaceful solutions to various conflicts.

Yudhoyono, however, stopped short of mentioning any concrete steps needed to settle the various religious conflicts taking place in a number of areas throughout Indonesia.

The Banda Aceh municipal administration has closed nine churches and five Buddhist temples across the city, with priests being reportedly forced to sign agreements stating they would close their churches following mounting pressure from local Muslims.

The congregations of the nine churches were advised to attend churches that had building permits, such as the Catholic Church, Western Indonesia Protestant Churches (GPIB) or Filadelfia Batak Protestant Churches (HKBP).

The closure of churches in Aceh has been going on for some time, which has raised concerns over growing intolerance that could lead to community conflicts.

In April this year, acting Aceh Singkil regent Razali AR ordered the closure of 20 churches in a letter signed on April 30, which ordered members of the congregations to tear down the churches themselves by June 8, at the latest.

Aceh’s Christians are reportedly living in fear following the closure of nine churches in Banda Aceh over the past week.

Nico Tarigan, a priest at the Indonesia Bethel Church (GBI) Penau-yong, Banda Aceh, said he was afraid to hold mass because his side had signed an agreement with the Banda Aceh administration not to hold any religious activities as they had no permit to build a church.

“We had to close down our church because the administration said that it violated city regulations. If we remained open, the officials said they could not guarantee our safety. Since we didn’t want to get hurt, we halfheartedly signed the agreement,” Nico said.

Nico said that he used the building for worship and prayer meetings.