Indonesia: Obama Should Press Rights Concerns

Indonesia: Obama Should Press Rights Concerns November 15, 2011

The Obama administration’s deepening relationship with Indonesia means being frank about Indonesia’s serious human rights challenges. Indonesian government indifference to mob violence against religious groups and brutality by soldiers against peaceful protesters are good places to start. Elaine Pearson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch

(Washington, DC) – US President Barack Obama has an important and timely opportunity to raise human rights issues with the Indonesian government when meeting President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono this week in Indonesia, Human Rights Watch said today in a letter to Obama. He will travel to Bali for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit on November 19, 2011.

Obama should address key human rights challenges in Indonesia, including attacks on religious minorities, restrictions on freedom of expression, and the lack of accountability of Indonesian security forces for human rights abuses, especially in the easternmost province of Papua, Human Rights Watch said.

“The Obama administration’s deepening relationship with Indonesia means being frank about Indonesia’s serious human rights challenges,” said Elaine Pearson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Indonesian government indifference to mob violence against religious groups and brutality by soldiers against peaceful protesters are good places to start.”

On his last visit to Indonesia in November 2010, Obama made a point of praising Indonesia’s religious tolerance. However, in the last year, religious violence has become more frequent and deadly as Islamist militants have repeatedly mobilized mobs to attack religious minorities in their homes, places of worship, and community centers.

“Obama needs to temper his past praise of religious tolerance in Indonesia with some tough talk on religious freedom,” Pearson said. “He should press President Yudhoyono to end discriminatory laws and actively protect the country’s religious minorities.”

Human Rights Watch urged Obama to criticize the lack of accountability of security forces for continuing abuses, including extrajudicial killings and torture, in Papua and other areas. He should also raise concerns about Indonesian officials using vague and overbroad laws to prosecute the peaceful expression of political, religious, and other viewsin Papua and the Moluccas Islands. More than 100 activists are behind bars in Indonesia for peaceful acts of free expression. They include the former Papuan civil servant Filep Karma, who was sentenced to 15 years in prison after publicly calling for Papuan independence in December 2004.

“Obama should point out that as long as soldiers who commit torture get a few months in jail while peaceful activists get sentenced for years, Papuans are unlikely to have faith in Indonesian rule,” Pearson said. “He should urge Yudhoyono that to begin to win Papuans’ trust he should unconditionally release all political prisoners.”

URL: www.hrw.org/news/2011/11/15/...press-rights-concerns

Letter to President Barack Obama Regarding his Visit to Indonesia and Human Rights Issues

Letter to President Barack Obama Regarding his Visit to Indonesia and Human Rights Issues November 15, 2011

Barack Obama
President of the United States of America
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

Via facsimile: +1-202-456-2461

Re: Visit to Indonesia and Human Rights Issues

Dear President Obama,

Your administration has placed great emphasis on its deepening relationship with Indonesia. We believe your trip to Bali for the East Asian Summit on November 19, 2011, is an important opportunity for you to raise human rights issues with the Indonesian government, both publicly and privately, including matters concerning freedom of religion, freedom of expression, and accountability of the military for human rights abuses.

Freedom of Religion

Last November, when visiting Jakarta, you visited the Istiqlal Grand Mosque and later made a speech at Universitas Indonesia in which you praised Indonesia’s “religious tolerance,” noting that the Istiqlal Mosque was built by a Christian architect.

In the last year, however, increasingly violent attacks on religious minorities by Islamist militants, combined with bans issued by provincial authorities, have severely undermined Indonesia’s record on this front.

Incidents of religious violence have become more deadly and more frequent in 2011, as Islamist militants have repeatedly mobilized mobs to attack religious minorities in their homes, places of worship, and community centers. According to the Setara Institute, which monitors religious freedom, religious attacks have increased from 135 incidents in 2007, 216 incidents in 2010 to 184 cases in the first nine months in 2011. Most attacks were committed with complete impunity. Police and prosecutors have failed to adequately investigate and prosecute cases, sending a chilling message that members of minority religious groups are not provided the same protections as other Indonesian citizens. Even the most deadly cases have resulted only in short prison terms for a handful of offenders.

Some Indonesian ministers, including the minister of religious affairs, Suryadharma Ali, have made multiple public statements that appear to legitimize religious discrimination and violence. President Yudhoyono has not demanded that officials retract or clarify such remarks.

Recently, the Ministry of Religions submitted a draft law on “religious harmony.” There are concerns, however, that rather than promoting tolerance, the law will simply compile existing discriminatory decrees into a single law and strengthen discrimination against religious minorities.

The government has failed to overturn several decrees that discriminate against minority religions and foster intolerance. A 2008 national government decree prohibits the Ahmadiyah, a group who consider themselves Muslim but who some Muslims consider to be heretics, from practicing their faith. At least 17 provinces and regencies in Indonesia have issued local decrees banning the Ahmadiyah faith in Indonesia. As recently as October 13, 2011, the mayor of Bekasi, near Jakarta, issued a decree banning all “Ahmadiyah activities” in the city, effectively closing down its six Ahmadiyah mosques.

Ahmadiyah have suffered some of the worst of the recent violence. In one of the worst religiously-motivated attacks in 2011, more than 1,500 Islamist militants attacked a house in Cikeusik, in western Java, in February, killing three and seriously wounding five Ahmadiyah men. The incident was recorded on video. Public outrage prompted the authorities to promise to investigate the attack. But in July the Serang district court sentenced 12 men to between just three and six months’ imprisonment for the crimes of disturbing public order, incitement, and assault. Police did not conduct thorough investigations, and prosecutors did not call key eyewitnesses to the attack. The prosecutors sought reduced sentences, contending that the Ahmadiyah provoked the attack. In August, the Serang district court convicted one of the Ahmadiyah members seriously injured in the attack, Deden Sudjana, for assault and disobeying police orders, sentencing him to six months’ imprisonment.

Other religious minorities have increasingly expressed fears about the rise in attacks since President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono took office in 2004. In February of this year, militants attacked three churches in Temanggung, Central Java. The Semarang district court later convicted eight of the perpetrators, sentencing them to short sentences of between five months and one year in prison. In April, an Islamist suicide bomber attacked a police mosque in Cirebon, West Java, killing himself and injuring at least 28 people; the bomber had previously been involved in violent protests over a blasphemy trial and an anti-Ahmadiyah attack in Cirebon in 2010. In September, another Islamist suicide bomber attacked a Christian church in Solo, Central Java, killing himself and wounding 14 churchgoers.

Minority congregations have also reported that local government officials arbitrarily refuse to issue permits required under a 2006 decree on building houses of worship. Those who attempt to worship without a permit often face harassment and violence from local populations or police.

Given your past statements on religious tolerance, we believe you are uniquely placed to register these issues with President Yudhoyono and call on him to take urgent steps to address growing religious tensions. In particular, you should call on President Yudhoyono to use the influence and stature of his presidency to speak out against religious violence. He should also revoke the 2008 decree on the Ahmadiyah, order provincial authorities to repeal similar local decrees, review or revoke the 2006 decree on building houses of worship, and consider amending or repealing the 1965 blasphemy law, which designates six official religions in Indonesia. You should also urge him to ensure that Indonesian prosecutors and police are tasked to fully and fairly investigate and prosecute individuals and groups implicated in attacks, threats, and harassment of religious minorities, anywhere in the country.

Impunity for Abuses by the Military

Impunity for members of Indonesia’s security forces remains a serious problem, undermining the development of the rule of law in Indonesia. The military insists on policing itself, but military tribunals rarely charge soldiers even for serious abuses. When they do file charges, the proceedings lack transparency and the charges frequently fail to reflect the seriousness of the abuses committed. We have long recommended that civilian courts be given jurisdiction over soldiers who commit serious human rights abuses, but the military and the Indonesian government have refused. This greatly exacerbates the difficulty in bringing soldiers to justice.

On July 22, 2010, then-US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates formally announced the resumption of US military relations with Indonesia’s special forces, Kopassus, the last significant barrier to full-fledged US-Indonesian military ties. Secretary Gates articulated the standards agreed to by the US and Indonesian governments and militaries:

The Ministry of Defense has publicly pledged to protect human rights and advance human rights accountability and committed to suspend from active duty military officials credibly accused of human rights abuses, remove from military service any member convicted of such abuses, and cooperate with the prosecution of any members of the military who have violated human rights.

However, 18 months later, the Indonesia military has failed to live up to the pledges made by the Defense Ministry. Past problems persist: the Indonesian military still shows no inclination to adequately and transparently investigate soldiers and especially officers responsible for abuses, involve civilian authorities in their investigations, or ensure the safety of witnesses.

While a handful of military tribunals have been held in Papua, the charges have been inadequate and soldiers that committed abuses continue to serve in the Indonesian military.

For instance, in January, a military tribunal in Jayapura, Papua, convicted three soldiers from Battalion 753 and sentenced them to between eight to twelve months’ imprisonment for the extremely brutal torture of two Papuan farmers. Despite video showing the involvement of six soldiers, the tribunal tried only three of the six soldiers, and on lesser military discipline charges instead of torture. The soldiers have not been discharged.

In August, the Jayapura military tribunal convicted three soldiers from the same battalion after soldiers shot and killed Reverend Kinderman Gire on the suspicion he was a Papuan separatist. At the trial, the defendants claimed Gire led them to believe he was a member of the rebel Free Papua Movement (Organisasi Papua Merdeka, OPM) and tried to grab a rifle from one of them, who then shot him in the chest. They dumped the body in a river, after trying to cut off his head. Again, the tribunal convicted them of a lesser offense of “disobeying orders” and sentenced them respectively to just six, seven, and fifteen months in prison.

In August, internal military documents, mainly from Kopassus, were made public, exposing how the Indonesian military monitors peaceful activists, politicians, and religious clergy in Papua. The documents show the deep military paranoia in Papua that conflates peaceful political expression with criminal activity. Several of those named in the documents as targets have faced arbitrary arrest, imprisonment, harassment, or violence.

Recently, on October 17, the Indonesian police, backed by a detachment of military forces in armored personnel carriers, attacked a peaceful demonstration of the Papuan People’s Congress in Jayapura, killing at least three of the protesters and arresting approximately 300, including several of the event’s leaders (some of whom have traveled to the United States in the past and attended events with State Department officials and members of Congress). According to witnesses, police and army forces fired military assault weapons over the crowd and later pistol-whipped or beat the participants with rattan canes and batons, resulting in 96 injuries according to Indonesia’s Human Rights Commission. Hundreds of the protesters fled into a nearby forest, where at least three were killed under unclear circumstances –two died of gunshot wounds. We urge you to ask the Indonesian government what efforts are being made to investigate the deaths and injuries, and alleged excessive use of force by security forces at the demonstration.

We ask that you use the US’s deepening ties with the Indonesian government to press the military on its failure to hold its personnel to account for serious abuses. If the current situation prevails, the United States will increasingly be called to task for its uncritical support for the Indonesian military.

It would be very helpful if publicly and in your meeting with President Yudhoyono you were to raise concerns about recent military tribunals in Papua and the failure to bring those implicated in serious abuses to justice. The US should ask the Indonesian government for full disclosure of all military tribunal cases involving alleged abuses against civilians. Until the Indonesian government takes steps to hold perpetrators accountable, in line with the Leahy law, which prevents the US from cooperating with abusive military units, the US government should not participate in joint endeavors with military personnel or units implicated in abuses against civilians.

Intelligence Law

A new law on intelligence-gathering approved by Indonesian parliament on October 12 contains vague and overbroad language that the government could use to repress dissent and peaceful acts of free expression. The law also lacks a strong and transparent accountability mechanism. We urge you to raise concerns about the law with President Yudhoyono, and urge that it be revised to meet rule-of-law requirements and international due process standards. The president should immediately order an interim measure to limit any opportunity for the law’s misuse by setting up an independent oversight mechanism for the State Intelligence Agency (Badan Intelejen Negara, BIN).

Threats to Free Expression

In the years immediately after President Suharto was forced from power, Indonesia made huge strides in opening space for free expression and the media. But recent years have seen some troubling developments. Indonesian officials continue to enforce a number of laws that criminalize the peaceful expression of political, religious, and other views. These laws include offenses in Indonesia’s criminal code such as treason (makar) and “inciting hatred” (haatzai artikelen), which have been used repeatedly against peaceful political activists, particularly those from the Moluccas and Papua.

More than a hundred such activists are currently behind bars in Indonesia for peaceful acts of free expression. For instance, Filep Karma, a civil servant, made a speech in December 2004 in Jayapura that was critical of the government’s policies in Papua. He is currently serving a 15-year sentence in Abepura on charges of treason. Ruben Saiya, a farmer from the Moluccas, joined a protest dance in front of President Yudhoyono in an Ambon stadium in June 2007. He was sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment for treason. And as noted above, several Papua leaders were recently arrested after holding an event in Jayapura.

Human Rights Watch takes no position on claims to self-determination in the Moluccas Islands and Papua. Consistent with international law, however, Human Rights Watch supports the right of all individuals, including independence supporters, to express their political views peacefully without fear of arrest or other forms of reprisal. Indonesian laws, however, consider these non-violent acts as “treason” with the maximum penalty of life imprisonment.

We urge that you raise your concerns on the right to free expression in Indonesia with President Yudhoyono, and particularly urge that you ask Indonesian authorities to unconditionally release Filep Karma, Ruben Saiya, and all prisoners held for the peaceful expression of their views. The Indonesian government should also amend or repeal laws that criminalize peaceful political expression and repeal laws that criminalize defamation and “insulting” public officials, which are subject to misuse by authorities and individuals seeking to silence criticism.

Thank you for your consideration. We look forward to working with the White House, the State Department, the Defense Department, and the US Embassy in Jakarta to address these concerns.

Sincerely,

Brad Adams
Executive Director
Asia Division

URL: www.hrw.org/news/2011/11/15/...human-rights-issues

The dying canary and Indonesia’s religious freedom

OPINIONMon, 10/03/2011 7:57 PM

The dying canary and Indonesia’s religious freedom

Tobias Basuki, Jakarta

“Religious liberty is the proverbial canary in the mine,” according to Doug Bandouw, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute. Canaries are often used by miners as an early-warning signal for poisonous gases. When the small birds stop singing and suffocate, miners know toxic gases have polluted the area and something is wrong.

The right of religious freedom for small groups within a country is a vital indicator of the health of society. Religious freedom is the most basic freedom. Without it, it is doubtful that the lives and dignity of its citizens is truly respected.

Religious minorities in Indonesia have recently been systematically and aggressively silenced. Repression is allegedly perpetrated by religious extremists. The state is not without blame either.

The state partakes in the oppression of its own citizens, first through oversight and omission, and second by undertaking discriminatory actions and policies. The Blasphemy Law and a joint ministerial regulation on the Ahmadiyah minority Islamic sect are proof.

Two cases illustrate the dire condition of religious freedom in Indonesia.

First is the plight of the Ahmadis. The Ahmadis were part of our archipelago’s society even before independence and partook in the independence movement. The sect has now been cast aside and discriminated against.

Physical and verbal attacks against them have intensified in the past five years. One attack culminated in the slaughter of three members in Cikeusik, Banten.

Adding greater madness to the brutality was the gross injustice of our judiciary.

Those who participated in the vicious attacks were sentenced to jail for terms as little as three to six months. Deden Sudjana, whose house the Ahmadis were protecting, received a harsher sentence than those convicted of instigating the violence, who were hailed as heroes upon their release.

The Ahmadis understandably decided not to pursue and prolong the case considering the amount of prejudice and unfair treatment they have had to endure.

It was the first sign that the canary was not doing well.

The Blasphemy Law and the logic used to apply it is schizophrenic. Here is an example: The Blasphemy Law prohibits the existence of religions that resemble a major religion and also prohibits programming based on such religions from being broadcast.

In one city, an Ahmadiyah mosque was attacked and closed because it had a sign identifying it as an Ahmadiyah place of worship. The sign was considered “broadcasting” under the law. In another city, an Ahmadiyah mosque was attacked and closed because it had no signs on it and was accused of luring Muslims inside for conversion.

There are some well-intentioned arguments that state the Ahmadis should declare a new religion to avoid further prosecution. But the same logic would immediately put them in the crosshairs again.

The sect’s similarity to Islam puts it at odds with the law and prejudice against them. Labeling is not the issue; it is the bigoted view and actions of the few that are the main problems.

Another poignant example is the case of GKI Taman Yasmin. The congregation obtained a permit to build a church in July 2006. The construction, however, was stopped in 2008 by the head of Bogor’s Urban Planning and Landscaping Agency.

The church challenged the decision in court, which annulled the suspension issued by the city.

The annulment was disregarded and the church took its plight to the Supreme Court, which also ruled in favor of the church. Obstinately, the Bogor government under Mayor Diani Budiarto has chosen to blatantly disobey the Supreme Court’s ruling.

Opposition to the church’s construction is based on feeble grounds and outright ridiculous statements involving alleged counterfeit signatures, obstructing businesses and the infamous “no church should be on a street named after a Muslim”.

The reasoning proposed by the officials begs a serious question about the real motives behind the church ban. I attended one of the outdoor services conducted by the congregation in front of the sealed church.

None of the “public inconvenience” accusations held true. Even with a large number of visitors and an outdoor service, traffic was barely disturbed. There were no visible or plausible disturbances to businesses or the community.

However, one thing is clear. The mayor has broken the law on several accounts. First, he ignored court rulings, including a ruling from the Supreme Court. Second, the city violated the Regional Autonomy Law, which states that religion is the jurisdiction of the central government, not the local government.

Last but most flagrantly, Diani violated the Constitution and his oath of office. His repeated disregard of a court decision has made him a law breaker. The mayor should be impeached at the very least.

The canary is not dead … yet.

Indonesia as a nation faces two towers of evil. The first is epidemic corruption. It is like anemia. It is fatal, widespread and will kill us slowly. The second is radicalism and narrow-minded bigotry. Many say the radicals are few. It is true, but these few let loose will wound the nation and bleed us.

It is like a flesh wounds. It may not necessarily be fatal, but with a cancer draining our blood, a small wound can worsen and break us apart.

The writer is a graduate of Northern Illinois University and a lecturer at Pelita Harapan University, Tangerang.

Copyright © 2008 The Jakarta Post - PT Bina Media Tenggara. All Rights Reserved
URL: www.thejakartapost.com/news/2011/10/03/the-dying...freedom.html

Ahmadiyah onslaught ‘hardest test’ for RI democracy

NATIONALFri, 09/30/2011 2:20 PM

Ahmadiyah onslaught ‘hardest test’ for RI democracy

Ati Nurbaiti, The Jakarta Post, Canberra

Indonesians used to glowing praise over the country’s democratization were abruptly shamed with scenes of February’s mob attack and brutal killing of three Ahmadis in Cikeusik, West Java, projected in the first session of annual talks on Indonesia in Canberra on Friday.

Although the mob assault was acknowledged as an extreme exception, speaker Greg Fealy said it reflected one of the “hardest tests” for Indonesian democracy.

Even though Ahmadis were the least-liked of Indonesia’s minorities, “with no one important” defending them, in part given their exclusivity, Fealy said they were entitled to state protection guaranteed by the Constitution, more so because of the hostility against them.

He noted that the government was under pressure to ban the Ahmadiyah sect, who are regarded as un-Muslim by other Muslims, because they do not regard the Prophet Muhammad as the final prophet.

Fealy was addressing Indonesian Update 2011 at the Australian National University, after Chancellor and former foreign minister Gareth Evans had lauded Indonesia as “a talismanic example to the rest of the Muslim world”.

Fealy, among the most renowned scholars on Islam in Indonesia, cited the incident as one of the indicators of Indonesia’s “regression”, along with the dwindling anti-corruption drive and declining trust in elections and political parties.

The absence of the rule of law and mixed signals from the state regarding the attack had all resulted in the immunity of “emboldened sectarian vigilantes”.

Western leaders must pay more attention to this issue, Fealy said.

He noted how Jakarta seemed to endorse bylaws in several regencies that have banned Ahmadiyah in their areas, despite the decentralization law clearly stating that religious affairs are an authority of the central government.

Fealy noted how the attackers became the victims, with Justice and Human Rights Minister Patrialis Akbar stating that the assault and murder may not have been a human rights violation. Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali, who has been among many pushing for the state ban on Ahmadis, asserted that they were not Muslim.

Fealy compared the due process against the attackers to protesters who had brought a buffalo to a rally with “SBY” painted on its body. Students were immediately arrested.

“It seems insulting the President is more important” than murder, Fealy said.

“Arrests were made only after an outrage,” Fealy said. The recent verdict on the 11 attackers and one Ahmadi, their security chief, gave the latter, Deden Sujana, the sentences of between three and six months’ imprisonment, for “provoking” the attack that resulted in the death of three Ahmadis after being stabbed and tortured.

Douglas Ramage of AusAID, Australia’s aid agency, and another scholar on Indonesia, said the main factor constraining Indonesia’s progress was the weakening of its oversight institutions in recent years.

Yudhoyono’s leadership, he added, reflected “extreme inclusiveness and consensus”, Ramage said. This guarantees stability but showed a failure of Yudhoyono’s leadership for reform, “ceding space for others to roll back ‘reformasi’”.

Copyright © 2008 The Jakarta Post - PT Bina Media Tenggara. All Rights Reserved
URL: www.thejakartapost.com/news/2011/09/30/ahmadiyah...democracy.html

Indonesia’s ‘individual jihadists’ gaining ground

By Agence France-Presse, Updated: 9/27/2011

Indonesia’s ‘individual jihadists’ gaining ground

There was nothing sophisticated about the suicide bombing at an Indonesian church Sunday – using homemade explosives packed with nails, nuts and bolts, the bomber killed only himself.

National Police spokesman Anton Bachrul Alam holds up photographs of Ahmad Yosepa Hayat, the Bethel Injil Church bomber, during a press conference in Jakarta on September 27, 2011.

The attack was in stark contrast to the country’s deadliest terrorist incident nine years ago, when the Al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) killed 202 people, mostly foreigners, in the highly planned Bali bombings.

With networks such as JI suffering serious damage in the face of a remarkably successful crackdown by Indonesian security forces, a new generation of loosely-connected jihadists has been left to step up.

“The weakening of the large organisations is something positive. Indonesia has done a pretty damn good job of basic law enforcement,” International Crisis Group analyst Sidney Jones told AFP.

“The chances are less likely you’ll get an attack of that magnitude,” she added, referring to the Bali bombings.

Instead the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation has seen a spate of smaller attacks on minority religious groups both from bombers and in incidents of mob violence.

Details that have emerged about Sunday’s attack indicate that these small groups are finding strength and solidarity in their loose alliances.

Police identified Sunday’s bomber as 31-year-old Ahmad Yosepa Hayat, a member of Jemaah Ansharut Tauhid (JAT), which was founded by militant spiritual leader Abu Bakar Bashir.

Hayat was sitting among the Bethel Injil Church congregation in Solo, Central Java, when he stood up and detonated a bomb strapped to his stomach, killing himself and wounding 27 others.

Hayat was already on Indonesia’s most-wanted list for his role in another suicide attack five months ago in far-away Cirebon, 300 kilometres (186 miles) east of Jakarta, where another bomber attacked a police mosque.

That incident bore striking similarities to Sunday’s attack, with the bomber managing to kill only himself, and the explosives containing nails, nuts and bolts.

In recent years Indonesia’s police anti-terror unit, Detachment 88, has killed some of the country’s most-wanted militants, including Noordin Top, believed to have played a role in every major terrorist attack in the country’s recent history, and Dulmatin, who had a hand in the Bali bombings.

JI’s spiritual leader Abu Bakar Bashir was sentenced in June to 15 years’ imprisonment for funding a militant training camp in Aceh on Sumatra island, where special autonomy allows the region to implement some sharia laws.

But the attacks on religious minorities and “enemies of Islam” over the past year have been carried out by new cells – with old ties – and mostly made up of young men from vulnerable communities.

In an editorial, the Jakarta Globe said there was “no shortage of young people willing to take up the jihadist cause” and warned Indonesia is heading down a “very dangerous path”.

Jones said there are seven or eight known small groups operating in Solo alone, which are “all in communication with one another” and beginning to merge their agendas.

“Every time we’ve seen one of these smaller networks emerge, there have been at least one or two members with links to older networks,” she said.

“They’re harder to detect than bigger networks. They understood it was dangerous for them to use mobile phones to communicate, which makes it much more difficult for police to track them down.”

Critics of the government say it has done nothing to combat sectarian attacks, which while less deadly, have seen worrying incidents of mob violence.

A court sentenced 12 Muslim radicals to just a few months in jail for an attack on members of the minority Muslim sect Ahmadiyah, in Cikeusik in West Java in February.

The machete-wielding mob clubbed, hacked and stoned three defenceless men to death in front of police.

Victims who survived the attack were handed longer sentences than their assailants for “provoking violence”.

On September 12, on Indonesia’s remote Maluku islands, violence erupted in the provincial capital Ambon after rumours spread through text message that a Muslim motorcycle taxi driver had been attacked and killed by Christians.

“The government didn’t take strong action in Ambon, so this has created a wake-up call to jihadis to do something,” the Institute for International Peacebuilding security analyst Noor Huda Ismail said.

“We need to have transparent and accountable law enforcement. Of course if Indonesia doesn’t enforce the law these groups will keep doing these attacks.”

© Agence France-Presse
URL: http://news.malaysia.msn.com/...aspx?cp-documentid=5319251

Indonesia’s Ahmadiyah Sect Fears Religious Violence

Asia

Indonesia’s Ahmadiyah Sect Fears Religious Violence

Brian Padden | Jakarta September 13, 2011

Photo: AFP

Members of the Ahmadiyah community attend Friday prayers at the An-Nur Mosque in Manis Lor village, in Kuningan, West Java. Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa defended the country's judicial system after a court sentenced Muslim radicals to a few months in jail for killing members of the minority sect (File photo, August 5, 2011).

Last month, an Indonesian court sparked outrage over the light sentences handed out to 12 people accused of a deadly riot. The accused were part of a mob that targeted members of the Ahmadiyah Muslim minority sect, killing three of them.

Analysts say the light sentences were an example of what they say is Indonesia’s uneven justice system that can hand down unpredictable sentences.

An example is the case of Irwan Kristanto, who has been locked behind the doors of Pondok Rajeg prison for five months now. He is allowed to have visitors, but can not give a recorded interview.



The frail 29 year-old looks like he is barely 20. He explains that life here has been tough.

As a thief, the shy young man is forbidden to work in the orchard garden that stands in the middle of the concrete block. That is a job only accessible for those on a narcotics-related offense. But Irwan’s case is different from the murderers serving 20 year sentences. His crime was stealing two computer memory cards from an Internet café. Net value: $40.

Antonius Badar follows the Irwan case for the Indonesian legal aid group LBH Masyarakat. On Monday, he is visited Irwan’s parents, Hendri and Siti, to make sure they managed to get a copy of their son’s judgment.

“Sometimes, the district court doesn’t give this letter to the prison,” Badar says. “And the prison doesn’t know how long the prisoner should be in the prison. If Irwan didn’t have this letter, he could stay longer in prison.”

Irwan’s father, Hendri, describes a case that, he says, should not have ended with a young man with no prior police record sent to a hardcore jail.

Last February, he says, Irwan was spending time in an internet café, wondering how to better provide for his newly pregnant wife. In the spur of the moment he steals the two memory cards and leaves. But he forgot his cell phone and when he later returns to retrieve it, he is caught and sent to the police. A court later sentences him to 6 months in jail.

Rizal, owner of the Internet café, says that he now regrets having called the police. After a few hours Irwan apologized and his parents reimbursed the cost of the memory cards. Rizal says there was no real damage done and that should have been taken into account by the court.

Leopold Sudaryono, a researcher for the Asia Foundation, says the police have a quota system with financial incentives to prosecute such petty crimes.

“They have very limited amount of budget to process cases every month while at the same time each police station has quotas, a minimum amount of cases they have to bring to justice,” Sudaryono says. “Meaning what they are doing, they have to press charges for very petty crimes which will not require many operational costs to investigate. And usually the prosecutors just carry on with the cases.”

But there are other factors that contribute to uneven sentencing, which are highlighted in the Ahmadiyah case.

The maximum sentence given to the 12 people accused of taking part of the deadly attack on the minority sect was 6 months in jail. That is the same sentence Irwan received for his petty theft offense.

Leopold Sudaryono blames the police for the stark difference in the two sentences. He says police undermined the Ahmadiyah case after officers were widely accused of failing to stop the mob attack.

“So it is in the interest of the police, in the investigation of the case, not to substantiate that the violence is orchestrated,” he says.”If they investigate the case and provide the evidence otherwise, they will cut their own neck! That’s why they refer the case to the prosecutor as a weak case.”

Last week, Indonesia’s foreign minister refused to comment on the verdict or whether such light sentences would encourage more violence. Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa told reporters the problem of religious intolerance is not Indonesia’s alone.

“I’m afraid when we speak of, for example, the whole issue of now outside the domain of the court, about the whole issue of religious intolerance or intolerance in general and all kinds of phobia, I’m afraid Indonesia doesn’t have a monopoly on that, unfortunately,” he said.

Indonesian public opinion polls indicate that law enforcement agencies are the least trusted institutions.

Irwan, the convicted thief, says as harsh as his sentence was, he has fared relatively well. He should be released on August 27, just in time he hopes, to be home for the birth of his first child, a baby girl, due on the same day.

URL: www.voanews.com/english/news/asia/Indonesias...129723668.html

Pandeglang administration seals off Ahmadiyah mosque

ARCHIPELAGOMon, 09/12/2011 10:50 PM

Pandeglang administration seals off Ahmadiyah mosque

The Jakarta Post

Pandeglang regency administration has reportedly sealed off a mosque belongs to Islamic sect Ahmadiyah at Kadu Kandel, Cisereh, Cisata, Pandeglang, Banten.

“The sealing off is in line with a consensus made during a meeting with the Coordinating Board for the Monitoring of Mystical Beliefs in Society (Bakor Pakem) today,” said head of Pandeglang public order agency, Mustandri, on Monday, as quoted by Antara state news agency.

Bakor Pakem is an institution assigned to oversee the groups and sects currently spreading within Indonesian society.

Mustandri said the authorities shut down the Baitul Tahir mosque to prevent possible clash with the locals.

“We strictly prohibit the Ahmadiyah congregation from using the 4 meters by 5 meters mosque,” he said.

According to the administration’s data, there are 20 Ahmadiyah members staying in Cisereh.

Copyright © 2008 The Jakarta Post - PT Bina Media Tenggara. All Rights Reserved
URL: www.thejakartapost.com/news/2011/09/12/pandeglang...mosque.html

Indonesians Feel Ahmadis Should Be Protected as Fellow Countrymen: Poll

NEWS

Indonesians Feel Ahmadis Should Be Protected as Fellow Countrymen: Poll

Ronna Nirmala | September 09, 2011

FPI members protesting in front of Ahmadiyah secretariat in Makassar. They urged the Ahmadiyah members to stop their activities. (Antara Photo/Yusran Uccang)

Most Indonesians oppose the use of violence against the minority Muslim sect Ahmadiyah and think its followers here are their compatriots and should not be facing oppression, a survey by a human rights watchdog showed on Thursday.

Many respondents also said the deadly February attack in Cikeusik, Banten, occured because the government allowed it to happen, the Setara Institute for Freedom and Democracy said.

When asked who should be held accountable for the Cikeusik attack, in which three Ahmadis were killed, 33 percent of respondents said: “I don’t know.”

Another 32 percent blamed the government and security officials for doing little to prevent it, and 18 percent blamed the Ahmadiyah as they spread “blasphemous teachings.” The remaining 17 percent blamed the hard-line Muslims who carried out the attack, the survey said.

“The poll also indicates that almost 70 percent of the respondents consciously said that whatever happened, Ahmadiyah members are their fellow countrymen — aside from their differences in interpreting religion,” said Ismail Hasani, a researcher with Setara.

The survey was conducted among about 3,000 respondents in 27 districts in nine provinces, including Jakarta, West Java, Yogyakarta, East Java and West Nusa Tenggara.

A majority of respondents, about 60 percent, said they had no idea about what Ahmadiyah teachings entailed.

“Although some [Muslim] respondents refused to call Ahmadiyah followers their brothers, they agreed the attack in Cikeusik should never have happened,” said Bonar Tigor Naipospos, the deputy chairman of Setara. In fact, only a small portion of those questioned said the Cikeusik incident was caused by differences over religious beliefs.

“Some of them believed that it happened because of a fabricated issue from a third party, not related to religious interests,” Bonar said.

Two months ago, the Serang District Court in Banten convicted 12 hard-line Muslims for the Cikeusik attack but sentenced them to a maximum of just six months in jail.

Deden Sujana, the former head of security for the Indonesian Ahmadiyah Congregation (JAI), was a sentenced to six months in jail by the same court last month. He was found guilty of disobeying police officers who had ordered him and about a dozen other Ahmadis to leave the house they occupied just before the violence broke out. Deden was badly injured in the attack.

Copyright 2010 The Jakarta Globe
URL: www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/ahmadi-victim-recalls.../462886

Attack on Ahmadiyah condemned by most, survey reveals

NATIONALThu, 09/08/2011 8:26 PM

Attack on Ahmadiyah condemned by most, survey reveals

The Jakarta Post

According to Setara Institute, most Indonesians condemn the attack on Ahmadiyah in Cikeusik, Banten, West Java, which occurred earlier this year.

“As many as 82.3 percent of the respondents said they disapproved the attack, 7.9 were in favor, while 9.8 did not give a statement,” Setara Institute researcher Ismail Hasani told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

The research on people’s perception of Ahmadiyah was conducted in 47 regencies of 10 provinces in the country from July 10 to 25. It comprised 3,000 respondents from various religions, but 90 percent were Muslims

Ismail said the research also found out that 68.2 respondents regarded Ahmadiyah as fellow citizens, 11.9 percent did not regard them as fellow citizens. Twenty percent did not respond.

“The results bring us a hope that tolerance still exists in this country,” he said.

Yet, he said the research also found that more than 40 percent of respondents were in favor of a joint ministerial decree (SKB) and the Indonesian Ulema Councils (MUI) edict declaring Ahmadiyah be disbanded because it was heretic and blasphemous.

The joint decree was issued by the religious affairs and home ministers, and the attorney general in 2008 in efforts to regulate Ahmadiyah followers’ religious practice.

Ismail said people’s inter-religious tolerance in this country was at a good level, “But they can hardly accept others of the same religion, because of a slight variation in beliefs.”

On February 6, Ahmadiyah followers were set upon by angered residents who objected to their beliefs, which they say go against “pure” Islam.

Hundreds of people attacked 21 Ahmadis, killing three of them and injuring at least five, while ransacking and setting a house belonging to Ahmadis on fire.

Copyright © 2008 The Jakarta Post - PT Bina Media Tenggara. All Rights Reserved
URL: www.thejakartapost.com/news/2011/09/08/attack-ahmadiyah...reveals.html

Cleansing Indonesia

Cleansing Indonesia

Posted by Frank Crimi on Aug 25th, 2011

A shocking verdict rendered by an Indonesian court underscores the rising tide of violence and discrimination against religious minorities in Indonesia, long purported to be the world’s most tolerant Muslim nation.

In February 2011, Deden Sudjana, a 48-year old Indonesian male, was one of twenty members of a Muslim minority sect called the Ahmadiyah who were violently attacked by an enraged Muslim mob while they gathered in a house in the Indonesian village of Cikeusik.

The fury of the mob attack — which ironically occurred during Indonesia’s Interfaith Harmony Week — was engendered by the presence of Ahmadiyah in Cikeusik. The Ahmadiyah, with 200,000 followers in Indonesia, is considered heretical by many Muslims because of its belief that Muhammad was not the final prophet.

While Sudjana and a handful of Ahmadiyah men tried to defend the property with stones and slingshots, they were quickly overwhelmed by nearly 1,500 Muslims, all armed with clubs, machetes and rocks.

In a terrifying scene caught on video, three Ahmadiyah men were killed and the others badly beaten. As the mob danced around the dead men, laughing and chanting “God is Great,” Indonesian police merely stood and watched.

However, the Indonesian police did manage to arrest Sudjana — whose hand was nearly severed by a machete in the attack — for ostensibly inciting the mob to violence by not leaving the home upon the mob’s arrival.

While that action may have been surprising, it was overshadowed in early August when an Indonesian court sentenced Sudjana to six months in jail. It was a verdict that understandably shocked Sudjana, given the fact that 12 members of the attacking mob had been given sentences between three to six months.

In fact, one of those attackers who had crushed in the skull of an Ahmadiyah man with a rock was released from prison days before Sudjana’s sentencing. Upon his return to Cikeusik, he was treated as a conquering hero by his fellow villagers. As one man said of the attack, “I do feel bad people had to die, but we had to clean our village.”

So, as he was being escorted from the courtroom, an incredulous Sudjana asked aloud, “I’m the victim. Why am I getting a higher sentence than some of the perpetrators?”

Mistreatment of the Ahmadiyah has escalated dramatically since 2008 when the Indonesian government decreed the Ahmadiyah to be a deviant sect whose followers could face up to five years in prison for practicing their faith. Since then, over a hundred violent incidents against the Ahmadiyah have been recorded, incidents which include the torching of mosques and homes.

One of the bigger driving forces behind those attacks has been the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), a violent and hard-line Islamic militant group founded in 1998 whose stated goal is the implementation of Sharia law in Indonesia.

Unfortunately, the Ahmadiyah are not the only ones to offend the religious sensibilities of the FPI and other Muslim groups. Christians have also seen a dramatic escalation of discrimination and violence launched against them.

In 2011 alone, the Indonesian Community of Churches reported at least 20 churches were forced to suspend services due to mob threats and government intervention, with scores more torched and vandalized.

Unfortunately, replacing a destroyed church or building a new one is highly problematic as Indonesian law requires that construction of a new church must have the support of 60 percent of a community’s residents, an often impossible task for Christians who make up less than nine percent of Indonesia’s total population.

In one notable example, local authorities in Bogor, a suburb of the capital city of Jakarta, have prevented the Indonesian Christian Church (GKI) from moving into a new building for over two years despite a ruling from Indonesia’s Supreme Court that the church be unsealed.

Yet, Bogor’s mayor, Diani Budiarto, has refused to comply with the order and has recently come up with a new excuse for not opening the church, reasoning that the street the church was built on has an Islamic name and is thus an offense to Muslims.

Unfortunately, the Indonesian government has refused to intervene in the case. According to Indonesia’s Home Affairs Minister Gamawan Fauzi, “this is the political reality in the field and it could cause disturbances to security and peace. It would not be healthy in the long run, even for the congregation members themselves.”

Unfortunately, Fauzi’s concern for Christian well-being is well-placed as Muslim intolerance has grown more overt. It’s a trend perhaps best expressed in June 2010, at the second Bekasi Islamic Congress in Bekasi, West Java, when Muslims were instructed to form Islamic paramilitary forces in readiness for a jihad against Christians.

Another more recent example of that intolerance occurred in February 2011 when a Christian man accused of blasphemy for distributing pamphlets that apparently insulted Islam received a sentence of five years in prison. However, a mob of over 1,000 Muslims, believing the verdict required a death sentence, went on a rampage, storming the courthouse and setting several local Christian churches on fire.

Yet, despite Muslims making up over ninety percent of Indonesia’s 240 million citizens, the Indonesian government insists it is committed to promoting religious tolerance, citing its constitutional guarantee of freedom of religion.

Instead, some have laid the blame for the rise in religious intolerance squarely at the doorstep of Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. Critics say that because Yudhoyono relies on the support of Islamic parties in parliament, he has been reluctant to condemn or act upon religiously-motivated violence and thus has emboldened the FPI and other Islamist groups.

While Yudhoyono hasn’t been a profile in courage in dealing with the issue, others say it is the Indonesian government’s own laws and its selective enforcement that are actually fueling the continued harassment and persecution of religious minorities.

Specifically, Indonesia’s blasphemy law grants local governments the freedom to charge and detain members of religious minorities that are considered deviant. In fact, in April 2010 Indonesia’s Supreme Court ruled that that it was constitutional to ban religious groups that “distort” or “misrepresent” official faiths.

While Indonesia officially recognizes six religions (Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism, Buddhism, Hinduism and Confucianism) in practice, the blasphemy law is applied primarily to perceived offenses against Islam.

Unfortunately, the punishment for those offenses, whether carried out by the Indonesian government or by an enraged mob, can be quite severe. As he lingers alone in his jail cell, it’s a fact Deden Sudjana understands all too well.

Frank Crimi is a writer living in San Diego, California. You can read more of Frank's work at his blog www.politicallyunbalanced.com.

Copyright © 2011 FrontPageMagazine.com
URL: http://frontpagemag.com/2011/08/25/cleansing-indonesia/

Indonesian journalists support Islamic fundamentalism: Survey

NATIONALThu, 08/25/2011 8:00 AM

Indonesian journalists support Islamic fundamentalism: Survey

The Jakarta Post

More than 50 percent of Indonesian journalists agreed that the religious sect Ahmadiyah and Playboy magazine should be banned, while sharia and anti-pornography laws should be enacted, a survey has revealed.

The Pantau Foundation, a Jakarta-based journalism research and training organization, conducted a survey in late 2009 about the influence of Islam, the nation’s principal religion, upon 600 journalists from mainstream newspapers, radio and television.

Using the multi-random sampling method, Muslims accounted for 85 percent of the survey’s respondents, while 7 percent were Protestants, 4 percent Catholics and 3 percent Hindus and others.

The survey showed that 64.3 percent of the respondents strongly agreed that the Ahmadiyah sect should be banned, even though 96 percent of them said giving a voice to the minority was their duty, and more than 70 percent of them agreed that human rights issues were important, said foundation head, Andreas Harsono.

“While most of the respondents acknowledged their journalistic principles, this survey tells us that their personal religious beliefs directly or indirectly influence their points of view on social and religious issues,” he said in the survey, which was launched on Wednesday.

The survey also found that 63.1 percent of respondents agreed on the implementation of the Anti-pornography Law; thus, relating to the law, Playboy magazine should be banned.

“Over 63 percent of the survey’s respondents believed the magazine should not be sold in Indonesia,”
he said.

Other than that, 63.5 percent of respondents agreed to the edict issued by the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) stating that secularism, liberalism and pluralism were prohibited; 41.4 percent of them said that Muslim women should wear head coverings; and 37.6 percent supported the enactment of Islamic-based sharia law, including the punishment of flogging.

Andreas, who is also a member of the New York-based Human Rights Watch, said that the inclination of journalists toward Islamic fundamentalism should be considered as an alarming sign for the nation’s future democracy and pluralism.

“Once journalists go outside their house, they have to leave their personal identities behind them and become news-seekers. It means that they have to put their profession before their religious beliefs or nationality,” he said.

“If a journalist ever takes sides, they should support the weak, the discriminated, and the untouched rather than follow the majority,” he added.

The Wahid Institute researcher Rumadi, who was also a speaker at the discussion, referred to the results of the survey as “the growth of silent fundamentalism”.

He said that everyone, including journalists, should be aware of, and worry about, such things.

“Honestly, the survey results don’t surprise me,” he said.

“Fundamentalism grows in silence but it can grow quickly in many sectors, including journalism.”

He added that journalists should increase their awareness on this matter because “journalism is one of the most essential components within civil society. Journalists’ views represent public opinion, and, at many times, can also influence it.”

Senior journalist and former head of the Indonesian Press Council, Atmakusumah Astraatmadja, who said that he had seen changes in society, hoped that journalism would return to its original, pure function. (lfr)

Copyright © 2008 The Jakarta Post - PT Bina Media Tenggara. All Rights Reserved
URL: www.thejakartapost.com/news/2011/08/25/indonesian-journalists...

Jakarta’s Tough on Terrorists But Not Other Radicals

OPINION

Jakarta’s Tough on Terrorists But Not Other Radicals

John McBeth - Straits Times Indonesia | August 23, 2011

When criminal court judges are fearful of dishing out tough punishment or, worse, allow a certain empathy for the accused to colour their judgment, it is important to look higher up the chain for the underlying reason.

In the case of the leaders of the mob who murdered three members of the Ahmadiyah sect last February, it comes down to the way the Government treats Islamic terrorists differently from other religious radicals who may not bomb but terrorize all the same.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s administration clearly sees the terrorists as a direct challenge to the state, ignoring the more insidious threat mainstream extremists pose to the Constitution and the rule of law.

As a result, while Indonesia gets deserved praise for the success of its anti-terrorism campaign, its much-vaunted reputation for moderation and religious tolerance has paradoxically undergone a significant erosion at the same time.

There may well be a connection. Anxious not to appear as if it is at war with Islam, the government is consciously leaning the other way when it comes to other hardline groups who flirt with the law.

In its latest report, the United States- based Pew Research Centre groups Indonesia with Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, Somalia, Nigeria and Bangladesh as countries where social hostilities and government restrictions involving religion are the highest in the world.

The ludicrously light three- to six-month jail terms handed out to the 12 defendants accused of killing the three Ahmadis in the western Java province of Banten is the worst example yet of how the tyranny of the majority has been allowed to prosper.

The sentences were even less than the seven months demanded by prosecutors and fell well below the maximum penalty of 12 years, with a teenage boy receiving just three months for using a stone to beat to death one of the helpless victims.

It was obvious from the start of the trial that prosecutors and judges alike were cowed by the hundreds of hardliners who showed up for each court session in what was once the heartland of Darul Islam, the movement that fought for an Islamic state in the 1950s.

Prosecutors even told the court that despite a horrifying, secretly filmed video of the incident, the victims’ refusal to flee the house where they had futilely tried to hold off the mob contributed to the violence and justified a reduced sentence.

Rather than acting as a deterrent, the sentences will almost certainly encourage further persecution of an Islamic sect, widely regarded as heretic, whose numbers range from the government figure of 50,000 to 80,000 to its own estimate of 400,000.

Sadly, the government finds itself in a cleft stick, realising that if it bans the sect it will not only be breaching the Constitution, which guarantees freedom of religion, but also officially declaring open season on its adherents.

Already under pressure in Muslim- dominated neighbourhoods, where churches can be built only with the approval of the majority of the local populace, Christians fear the increased intimidation will not end there. They have good cause to worry.

Four days after the Banten court handed down its verdict, mobs burned down three supposedly ‘illegal’ churches in Sumatra’s Riau province, the latest of 200 such attacks in the past five years and the 17th this year.

Last February, three churches were destroyed in Central Java, in protest over a court’s decision not to sentence a Christian man to death for defaming Islam. He had already received a five-year prison term, the maximum allowed under law.

The government’s timid attitude is also reflected in the lack of law enforcement that only exacerbates religious tensions. As in Banten, police more often than not stand idly by when thuggish groups like the Islamic Defenders Front go on the rampage.

Indonesia has long been held up as a shining example of religious tolerance and a nation where democracy and Islam co-exist in harmony. In that, it is rightfully held to much higher standards.

One Jakarta-based security firm told its clients recently that if Indonesia maintains its current trajectory, “the trend will transcend the realm of religion and affect other factors, such as the overall state of security and the business and investment climate”.

“At worst,” it warned, “it could lead to increased acts of terrorism and possibly a re-occurrence of the sectarian violence that nearly tore Indonesia asunder during the early post-Suharto period over a decade ago.”

Reprinted courtesy of Straits Times Indonesia.

Copyright 2010 The Jakarta Globe
URL: www.thejakartaglobe.com/opinion/jakartas-tough.../461094

Ahmadis in West Java Fear They’re Next

HOME

Ahmadis in West Java Fear They’re Next

Nivell Rayda | August 22, 2011

The Ahmadiyah community in Cianjur, West Java, is airing fears of violence and retaliation after a court in Banten recently jailed 12 men for an attack there that left three members of the minority Muslim sect dead.

The Islamic Reform Movement (Garis), a hard-line Muslim group based in Cianjur, had previously voiced its support for hose involved in the Cikeusik killings in February. Hundreds of Garis members had attended the trials of the 12 men, who were eventually convicted for their roles in the brutal attack but were jailed for only up to six months.

Firdaus Mubarik, a spokesman for the Indonesian Ahmadiyah Congregation (JAI), said that Ahmadi youths in Cianjur had been coerced into joining Garis-sanctioned Koranic recitals and mass prayer meetings, and some had been physically threatened for refusing to attend.

“There are indications that violence is just around the corner in Cianjur. Garis has been visiting Ahmadis’ homes, telling them to renounce their faith. An Ahmadiyah boy was recently bullied, stones were thrown at JAI properties and homes have been vandalized,” he told the Jakarta Globe on Sunday.

Firdaus said that just days before the 12 men involved in the Cikeusik attack were sentenced to between three and six months in prison, at least four houses in Cianjur were burned down in suspicious circumstances.

But Chep Hermawan, chairman of Garis, played down the incidents, saying they were not arson. “Garis has always been the victim of rumors like that. Whenever there is something bad like an accidental fire at an Ahmadi’s house, people immediately say we are to blame. It was a fire, not arson,” he told the Globe.

Chep, who is also a wealthy businessman and influential figure in Cianjur, said his group only used peaceful means to persuade Ahmadiyah members to join mainstream Muslim groups.

“We are preaching the correct view of Islam,” he said. “We even offered those who leave Ahmadiyah a Rp 1 million ($120) loan because we understand some joined because the blasphemous sect had been generous to them.”

The JAI recorded more than 160 cases of violence against Ahmadiyah communities in the last 10 years. Some Muslims accuse the sect of believing its founder, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, to be a prophet, contrary to the dogma that Muhammad was the last prophet. But the JAI has refuted this, saying its teachings are in line with mainstream beliefs.

Andreas Harsono, an Indonesian consultant for New York-based Human Rights Watch, said the lenient sentences in the Cikeusik case had only emboldened hard-liners to further intimidate Ahmadis. “The verdict was like a license for groups such as Garis,” he said. “The government is sending a message that attacks against Ahmadiyah will not be properly punished.”

Copyright 2010 The Jakarta Globe
URL: www.thejakartaglobe.com/home/ahmadis-in.../460643

Freedom Elusive for Religious Minorities

HOME

Freedom Elusive for Religious Minorities

Ulma Haryanto | August 18, 2011

For Firdaus Mubarik, an Indonesian Ahmadiyah activist, Independence Day provides no cause for celebration.

“For me and my family, there is no Independence Day this year,” Firdaus said on Wednesday. “I don’t want to hear people talking about it or to watch celebrations, because I know my brothers are not free at all. Many more live in fear all across Indonesia.”

Firdaus referred to Deden Sudjana and Ahmad Nuryamin, who were sent to prison for defending their community from mob attacks. Deden was found guilty of violent assault and disobeying police officers during an anti-Ahmadiyah protest in Cikeusik, Banten, in February. Three Ahmadis were killed in the attack.

“I take it as a new experience. Now I know what it is like to be an inmate,” Deden said in a phone interview. “I also see this place as a temporary retreat.”

Deden is expected to be released in November, if he accepts the court’s ruling. “I decided to appeal. I haven’t given up my hope of seeking justice,” he said.

Ahmad, from Cisalada, Bogor, received an 18-month sentence for stabbing an attacker in self-defense in October 2010. In that incident, a group of 200 people attacked his village, looting and burning homes.

Ahmad admitted to carrying a knife, but he said he panicked and did not remember stabbing one of the teenagers who set an Ahmadiyah mosque on fire.

Ahmad was originally sentenced to nine months by the Cibinong district court, but he saw his jail term increased after appealing to the West Java High Court.

Meanwhile, Bona Sigalingging from the GKI Yasmin church in Bogor reflected on the congregation’s second year of having to pray on the roadside, because its church was still sealed by the city government.

“Our independence is still something to be thankful for. We feel that the current injustice is more reason for us to stand up and fight,” he said. The congregation church has held its Sunday services on the pavement since last April.

For Yap Sungkono, a Falun Gong practitioner, not being legally accepted as an official organization does not mean he cannot celebrate Independence Day.

“The group has a marching band and we were invited to perform today at the National Archives Building,” Yap said. Outlawed in China, Falun Gong activists are trying to make a new home in Indonesia.

The government has refused to recognize Falun Gong has a legal organization, though, based on input from the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Justice and Religious Affairs, as well as the National Police and the State Intelligence Agency (BIN).

Copyright 2010 The Jakarta Globe
URL: www.thejakartaglobe.com/home/freedom-elusive.../459861

As We Reflect on Independence Day, Can We Honesty Say We Are Free?

OPINION

As We Reflect on Independence Day, Can We Honesty Say We Are Free?

Tasa Nugraza Barley | August 18, 2011

Celebrating this 66th independence day, there’s one question every Indonesian needs to ask themselves: Do they have the independence they deserve?

Although this nation gained its independence a long time ago, through long, bloody wars against the Dutch occupation, it wasn’t until 1998 that we really could say whatever we wanted to say. Although many think Suharto was able to improve our economy greatly, the fact that his 32-year dictatorship oppressed us politically and culturally was not debatable. It was simply another kind of occupation.

But is it right to claim that conditions are so much better now? Is everyone finally enjoying the independence in this country?

Sadly, I don’t think so.

As we’ve been practicing democracy for more than a decade, it may be a valid claim that we finally have the political right that we never had in the past. If there are things that go wrong, people can easily criticize the government or lawmakers, an act that would send someone to jail during Suharto’s regime.

Even though this nation may be a role model of democracy in the region, by providing its people the independence to speak freely and criticize, Indonesians still don’t have their independence in many other areas.

Countless times, the president and his ministers have announced how our economy has been improving very significantly. It’s true that Indonesia’s economic growth looks very confident — it is now predicted to reach 6.6 percent, surpassing the government official target of 6.5 percent — and is stubbornly unaffected by the downfall of American and European economies.

Looking from this perspective, it’s easy to say that the government has successfully improved the prosperity of the people. But as shown by the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) in early July, there are still 30 million poor people in Indonesia, a slight improvement from last year’s number, 31 million. Is it just me, or are the rich getting richer and the poor, well, staying very poor?

As has been revealed through a number of corruption cases — the most high-profile involving the likes of Gayus Tambunan, Susno Duadji and now Muhammad Nazaruddin — the justice system is controlled by little other than power and money.

People were clearly hurt to find out that former tax man Gayus could miraculously travel to Bali, Singapore, Macau and Hong Kong while supposedly in police detention during his graft trial.

The Gayus case clearly made us understand even better than before how justice can still be bought in this country. As long as you have money, the chances are you can fix things here and there, whether you’re right or wrong.

The public is watching another political circus show, with Democratic lawmaker Nazaruddin as its main star. Not only is he alleged to have a key role in the Southeast Asian Games graft scandal, but the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has also stated that the disgraced politician is also involved in other corruption cases, worth more than a staggering Rp 6 trillion ($700 million) in total.

Looking at the amount of money involved, if true, Nazaruddin could not have done this by himself; many other politicians and government officials must have played a role in the scandal.

But based on previous corruption cases, my hunch tells me that only a few will be sacrificed, while many others will walk free as if nothing has happened.

And this is all happening when a poor man can easily spend months, or even years, in jail just for stealing a pair of slippers from the mosque or a chicken from his neighbor’s house.

Try to talk about independence to those in the Ahmadiyah sect, a religious minority group whose 500,000 members are receiving threats all over the country. Among many of these incidents, one stands out. In February, Ahmadiyah members in Cikeusik, West Java, were attacked by a 1,500-strong mob who wanted to kick them out from the village. Three Ahmadis died.

A court has now jailed 12 members of the Sunni Muslim mob for, at most, just six months each, although they were caught on film violently attacking Ahmadiyah members in clear sight of police officers. As if this was not weird enough, the same court this week jailed one of the Ahmadiyah survivors for six months. Deden Sudjana, the Ahmadiyah member, afterwards bitterly questioned why he had been treated the same as — or even worse than — the people who had murdered his three friends.

When he asked “Where is the justice?” what he was essentially saying was that he and many other minority counterparts did not have the privilege to enjoy this country’s independence. Believing in whatever god and religion you wish to is supposed to be a basic right here, yet Deden and his friends cannot do this.

If our founding fathers and national heroes could come back and see all this, I’m sure they would cry. They would be shocked to see how their noble values have been stamped on by today’s leaders in the interests of people’s egos.

When our heroes bravely fought for independence, all they wanted to do was ensure that their grandchildren could live freely, happily and prosperously. To achieve that goal, they did not mind having a humble life.

But look at us now, we’ve become a shameless nation whose “independence” seems to be nothing but a rhetorical term in the history books.

Copyright 2010 The Jakarta Globe
URL: www.thejakartaglobe.com/commentary/as-we-reflect.../459916

Ahmadis to drop further legal proceedings in Cikeusik killings

NATIONALTue, 04/19/2011 10:29 PM

Ahmadis to drop further legal proceedings in Cikeusik killings

The Jakarta Post

The Indonesian Ahmadiyah Congregration (JAI) says it will not seek further legal action against the hard-liners given lenient sentences for instigating a riot in which three Ahmadis were beaten to death.

The JAI, a repeated target of violence by Muslim hard-liners who accuse it of straying from Islam, said that the Ciekusik riot case was over.

“The families of the victims have forgiven all the attackers. They are fine now,” JAI spokesman Zafrullah A. Pontoh said. “We deeply regret that we had to lose three of our members. But we will not prolong the conflict by reporting the murder cases,” he added.

However, the incident would not deter the group from practicing or defending their beliefs, he said.

Several legal experts have suggested that the Ahmadis file another report following the Serang District Court’s decision to sentence 12 hard-liners to jail for terms ranging from three to six months for involvement in the attack.

The same court sent Deden Darmawan Sudjana, an Ahmadi man who was critically injured in the attack, to prison for six months for defying an order to leave the area where the mob was ready to ransack the assets of Ahmadi community members.

Human rights activists, foreign governments and legal experts have agreed that the verdicts were unfair.

Criminal law expert Yesmil Anwar of Padjajaran University in Bandung, West Java, said that the trials should not have ended with such light sentences. “We cannot merely say it was an unanticipated tragedy. Indonesia is a state of laws. All crimes, regardless of whether they are committed intentionally or unintentionally, should be investigated fairly,” he said.

Yesmil said that the outcome of the legal proceedings was partisan and unfair to the Ahmadis. “The ultimate goal of the judicial system should be justice for victims.”

Yesmil said the Ahmadis should continue to fight. “File a new case that focuses on the murder of its three members,” he said. “If the Ahmadis file a report for murder, the police should respond by holding an investigation. All of us can keep our eyes on the investigation to make sure the police do their job.”

Yesmil also questioned the judges’ decision to sentence Deden under article 212 of the Criminal Code for acting against the state, which was not part of the indictment submitted by prosecutors. Deden had only been charged with physical abuse and inciting hatred.

“The judges’ decision has gone too far away from the real point of the case,” he said.

Another criminal law expert, Eddy S. Hiariej of Yogyakarta-based Gadjah Mada University, said it was not usual for judges to expand upon the indictment submitted by prosecutors. “Judges determine the sentence based on the prosecutors’ demand. In this case, the judges considered another charge,” he said.

However, Eddy said, the practice, while uncommon, was allowed. “The judges can do so if they see another violation of the law,” he said.

Hasril Hartanto, a criminal law expert from the University of Indonesia in Depok, likened the sentence to a compromise. “The prosecutors saw their priorities as stabilizing the social situation first, then justice,” he said.

“Prosecutors might have faced an unpleasant situation if they supported the Ahmadis. For the sake of social security, they chose to make the minority suffer,” he said.

On Tuesday, activists from various organizations, including the Indonesia Legal Aid Institution Foundation, the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute, Kontras, Imparsial, Elsam, and the Human Rights Working Group, issued a statement condemning Deden’s sentence. “We criticize law enforcement’s unwillingness to pursue the case fairly for the minority Ahmadi,” Kiagus Ahmad Bella Sati of the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute said. Ahmad, who also represented Deden, said he activists demanded that the Court Commission investigate prosecutors in the case.

Copyright © 2008 The Jakarta Post - PT Bina Media Tenggara. All Rights Reserved
URL: www.thejakartapost.com/news/2011/08/18/ahmadis-drop-further-legal-proceedings-cikeusik-killings.html

Fostering Intolerance: Indonesian Laws Fuel Violence against Religious Minorities

8-17-2011

By Quinn O’Keefe
Senior Associate, Human Rights Defenders

When the Indonesian government says it is tolerant of religious minorities, don’t believe it. It is the government’s laws and their selective enforcement that are fueling extremist violence, as well as the continued harassment and persecution of religious minorities.

While all religious minorities are at risk, Indonesia’s Ahmadiyya have been particularly persecuted compared to other minorities. An incident that received international notoriety occurred in February 2011, when more than 1,000 villagers armed with machetes and sticks stormed a house of Ahmadiyya worship, killing three and wounding six others. This happened in a village in Banten, not far from Jakarta. For a short while, graphic video footage of the attack went viral on YouTube (it was quickly taken down). The attackers were caught on tape stoning their victims to death, then beating the corpses as police officers and villagers watched and did nothing to stop the bloodshed.

This was not an isolated incident of extremist violence against the Ahmadiyya, an Islamic sect that is considered “deviant” by Indonesian ministerial decree. Just last week, 30 members of the Islamic Defenders Front attacked an Indonesian Ahmadiyya congregation in South Sulawesi, an incident in which three were injured.

The Indonesian criminal justice system has simply failed in Banten and in many other violent attacks against religious minorities. Despite the police presence and video documenting the attack, only 12 villagers were charged and received sentences ranging from three to six months imprisonment for their role in the attack. None were charged with murder, even though one had been caught on video bashing an Ahmadi man to death with a rock. The court even handed down sentences that were less than recommended by the prosecutors, stating that the Ahmadiyya were the true culprits instigating the violence. Then on Monday, the same court found an Ahmadi victim of that attack, Deden Sudjana, guilty of disobeying police orders and “ill-treatment,” and sentenced him to six months in prison. Deden’s hand was nearly severed during the attack.

It is this appalling juxtaposition between sentences that really illustrates the government’s mistreatment of religious minorities through the application of its criminal laws.

Take another example: In February, a Christian man accused of blasphemy for distributing pamphlets that apparently insulted Islam received five years imprisonment – the maximum penalty under the law. Upon hearing the verdict and deeming anything but penalty of death too lenient, a mob of over 1,000 strong stormed the courthouse and set Christian churches on fire in protest.

Violence against religious minorities is a result of laws that fuel intolerance in Indonesia. While the constitution guarantees freedom of religion, there are many provincial and regional bans against Ahmadiyya practice, including in Java. There is also a 2008 ministerial decree meant to protect Ahmadiyya from further persecution, but in actuality restricts public shows of support for the religion and actually calls the sect deviant. Then the blasphemy law grants local governments freedom to charge and detain members of religious minorities that are considered deviant.

The central government should not hide behind its constitution and international commitments to say Indonesia is a religious tolerant nation. Rather, it must take the lead and guarantee uniform enforcement of criminal laws and reform decrees that, in effect, officially ban minority religions and practice. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono should also be held to his word when he says mob violence is illegal, and hardline groups should be disbanded.

The Indonesian government has long been considered a human rights and democratic outpost in Asia, now it is time it starts acting like one.

In November 2010, Human Rights First released a report, Blasphemy Laws Exposed: The Consequences of Criminalizing “Defamation of Religions”, which details more than 50 recent cases from 15 countries. The report provides a window into how national blasphemy laws are abused by governments around the globe. The real-life stories in the report document how, time and again, accusations of blasphemy have resulted in arrests and arbitrary detentions and have sparked assaults, murders and mob attacks.

URL: www.humanrightsfirst.org/2011/08/17/fostering-intolerance-indonesian.../