T

he Indonesian Communion of Churches (PGI) says that the number of attacks against Christians in Greater Jakarta has increased.

The executive secretary of the PGI, Jeirry Sumampow, said that the PGI had recorded several new cases of violence directed against Christians in Greater Jakarta who were attempting to hold religious services in recent months.

“A HKBP [Batak Christian Protestant] church in Setu, Bekasi, has been banned from holding services for three weeks now,” Sumampow told reporters at a press conference at the Wahid Institute on Wednesday.

The Jakarta Christian Communication Forum recorded that 16 of 47 congregations across the nation that were unlawfully evicted or barred from their churches in 2010 were located in Greater Jakarta.

Sumampow said that the government had not resolved the cases of the Indonesian Christian Church in Taman Yasmin (GKI Yasmin) in Bogor and HKBP Filadelfia in Tambun, Bekasi, both of which have been sealed, either officially or by vigilantes, despite holding all needed permits.

Members of the churches have taken to holding Sunday services in front of the Presidential Palace in Central Jakarta, asking that the government allow them to use their churches.

“Especially in the case of GKI Yasmin, we reject all solutions offered by the government, except for the ones that comply with the law,” Sumampow said.

Tempo magazine has reported that the GKI Synod Assembly Executive Board (BPMS) ordered GKI Yasmin to abandon plans to use its current half-built church.

However, according to GKI Yasmin spokesman Bona Sigalingging, the synod’s members have rethought the decision and were ready to discuss potential solutions with the congregation.

“After meeting with pluralism activists on Jan. 30, the synod’s members agreed that the decision to disband GKI Yasmin and alter the church was wrong and needed to be changed,” Sigalingging said.

Sumampow said that relocating their church was unacceptable. “We have a bad experience with the relocation of church. It happened with a church in Ciketing, East Bekasi.”

In 2010, two pastors from HKBP Ciketing in the Mustika Jaya housing complex in Bekasi were attacked and a minister stabbed.

The government then moved the congregation to a building they could use for free.

Setara Institute deputy director Bonar Tigor Naipospos said on Wednesday that the Ciketing congregation has since had to pay rent for their church.

“The building management is about to end the lease,” Naipospos said, adding that the government had not offered any solutions.

Sumampow said that the PGI and other human rights groups would always support religious freedom, not only for Christians but also for other minority groups who have experienced similar injustices, through legal advocacy. JP/cor