The Thinker: Open or Closed?

OPINION

The Thinker: Open or Closed?

Elaine Pearson | November 18, 2011

“Now we are vilified,” an Ahmadiyah imam told me last week at a mosque outside Jakarta that is threatened with closure. This is not the Indonesia that US President Barack Obama described last year on his visit to Jakarta, when he said, “Even as this land of my youth has changed in so many ways, those things that I learned to love about Indonesia — that spirit of tolerance that is written into your Constitution, symbolized in mosques and churches and temples standing alongside each other, that spirit that’s embodied in your people — that still lives on.”

In Bali this week, Obama should urge President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to protect the rights of religious minorities and take urgent steps to protect religious freedom.

Religious tolerance in Indonesia is in danger. There has been a surge in deadly sectarian attacks against religious communities and dozens of mosques and churches have been forced to close. In the first nine months of 2011, the Setara Institute, which monitors religious freedom in Indonesia, documented 184 incidents of religious violence — a higher rate than the annual average of 204 such attacks over the last four years. About 80 percent of these attacks took place on Java, which is predominantly Sunni Muslim, and targeted Christians, Shia Muslims, Bahai, and the Ahmadiyah, who consider themselves Muslim but whom many Muslims consider heretics.

As Obama said, religious freedom is protected under the nation’s Constitution. But as freedom of expression in Indonesia has grown since the fall of Suharto in 1998, so has intolerance and violence. Instead of protecting minorities, the government has promoted and enforced discrimination.

The Ahmadiyah mosque I visited last week in the Jakarta suburb of Bekasi is facing increasing pressure to close. The imam told me: “We’ve been here for 22 years. We have never faced these problems before. We are a part of this community.” The imam showed me threatening SMS messages warning him of violence if the mosque doesn’t close.

Indonesia’s national Ahmadiyah association, Jemaat Ahmadiyah, estimates that at least 30 Ahmadiyah mosques have been closed in recent years. In 2008 the national government passed a decree that prohibits the Ahmadiyah from practicing their faith. So far 16 provinces and regencies have followed suit, issuing local decrees banning the Ahmadiyah.

On Oct. 13, the mayor of Bekasi issued a decree banning all “Ahmadiyah activities” in the city. The exact meaning of “activities” is unclear, but every Friday since then the local Muslim clerical council, police and the military have gone to the community center to urge the Ahmadiyah to stop their religious services.

Attacks against the Ahmadiyah have gotten increasingly violent because perpetrators know sectarian violence is not seriously prosecuted in Indonesia. In a deadly attack in February, a 1,500-strong mob of Islamist militants beat three Ahmadiyah men to death and seriously injured five others in the village of Cikeusik, Banten. Although the brutal violence was captured on film, only 12 of the attackers were tried and they received prison sentences of just three to six months. The prosecutors claimed the Ahmadiyah provoked the attack and sentenced one victim who nearly lost an arm to six months in prison for assault and disobeying police orders.

The Ahmadiyah are not the only victims. This year, militants have burned down Christian churches in Temanggung, Central Java, and a suicide bomber targeted a church in Solo, killing himself and wounding 14 churchgoers. Churches in Riau were burned down in August and now, perhaps in retaliation, a mosque in predominantly Christian West Timor is facing similar pressure to close.

The upsurge in religious violence and the lack of state protection is akin to what happened in Pakistan, where the Ahmadiyah faced systematic and legalized persecution. This played into the hands of the Taliban and other militant sectarian groups. Now fewer and fewer voices in Pakistan are willing to speak up for religious minorities because they themselves wind up targets of deadly attacks.

Given Obama’s words on religious tolerance during his last visit, ignoring the growing religious violence now would show he is out of touch with reality in Indonesia. The United States has an interest in a stable, democratic Indonesia, and that demands a country that respects religious freedom. Urging Yudhoyono to speak out against religious intolerance and to seek a repeal of laws that inflame sectarian violence and discrimination should be at the top of Obama’s agenda.

Elaine Pearson is deputy director of the Asia Division at Human Rights Watch.

Copyright 2010 The Jakarta Globe
URL: www.thejakartaglobe.com/opinion/the-thinker-open-or-closed/479189

Human Rights Watch Calls on Obama to Tackle Indonesian Abuses

NEWS

Human Rights Watch Calls on Obama to Tackle Indonesian Abuses

November 16, 2011

Armed soldiers patroling the Nusa Dua beach front area on Indonesia’s holiday island of Bali on Wednesday. The 16 leaders and heads of state of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) and East Asia Summit participants are gathering in Nusa Dua’s convention and resort enclave for this week’s annual meeting where world leaders from US, Russia, China, India and Japan will be attending. (AFP Photo)

Human Rights Watch on Wednesday urged United States President Barack Obama to tackle Indonesia’s leaders during his visit this week on issues including outbreaks of mob violence against religious minorities.

The New York-based watchdog said that despite warming ties with Indonesia, Obama should be forthright when he meets President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono during this week’s East Asia Summit held on the resort island of Bali.

Local and international human rights groups have expressed outrage over light sentences handed out to members of a religious lynch mob who killed three members of the Ahmadiyah minority sect in February.

The same court on Java island in August jailed one of the Ahmadiyah survivors of the attack, a man who almost lost his hand in the violence, for six months for defending himself and his friends.

“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,” she said in a statement.

Pearson called on Obama to push Yudhoyono to end discriminatory laws and protect religious minorities in the world’s most populous Muslim nation.

“Obama needs to temper his past praise of religious tolerance in Indonesia with some tough talk on religious freedom,” she added.

Indonesia’s constitution guarantees freedom of religion but rights groups say violence against minorities including Christians and the Ahmadiyah Islamic sect has escalated since 2008.

In February, a 1,500-strong mob of Muslims set two churches alight and ransacked a third in the town of Temanggung, on Java island, as they demanded that a Christian man be sentenced to death for insulting Islam.

More than 80 percent of Indonesia’s estimated 240 million people are Muslim. Five percent are Protestants and three percent Catholic.

Human Rights Watch said Obama must address “the lack of accountability of security forces for continuing abuses” as well as the 90 prisoners in the restive provinces of Papua and Maluku jailed for peaceful political activity.

“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.

Jakarta has faced a low-level insurgency in Papua ever since its 1969 takeover of the vast, mineral-rich territory which borders Papua New Guinea and has its own ethnically distinct population.

Washington and Jakarta have reinforced ties in recent years, signing new trade agreements and strengthening military and anti-terror cooperation.

Agence France-Presse

Copyright 2010 The Jakarta Globe
URL: www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/...indonesian-abuses/478849

Indonesia: Obama Should Make a Stand for Human Rights

Indonesia: Obama Should Make a Stand for Human Rights Closer Ties Should Require Strengthening Accountability and Respect for Rights November 7, 2010

Indonesia has made some good progress over the last decade, but that doesn’t mean President Obama should ignore other serious human rights problems. Obama should encourage Indonesia to take concrete measures to protect free expression and religious freedom, and to require accountability by the armed forces. Sophie Richardson, acting Asia director at Human Rights Watch

(Jakarta) — US President Barack Obama’s visit to Indonesia on November 9 through 11, 2010, is an important opportunity to make a stand for free expression, religious freedom, and a rights-respecting, accountable military in Indonesia, Human Rights Watch said today.

During the visit, Obama and Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono are expected to discuss the US-Indonesia Comprehensive Partnership. The partnership addresses bilateral concerns including trade and investment, security and defense, education, health care, and energy, as well as transnational issues such as climate change and humanitarian relief. While Indonesia has made great strides on a number of human rights issues since it emerged from authoritarian rule nearly 12 years ago, serious challenges remain that could undermine Indonesia’s stability and democracy in the absence of real institutional reform, Human Rights Watch said.

“Indonesia has made some good progress over the last decade, but that doesn’t mean President Obama should ignore other serious human rights problems,” said Sophie Richardson, acting Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Obama should encourage Indonesia to take concrete measures to protect free expression and religious freedom, and to require accountability by the armed forces.”

Indonesia has failed to show adequate respect for critical human rights such as freedom of expression and religion, Human Rights Watch said. In other areas where Indonesia has expressed a commitment to change, such as military reform, efforts have stalled. And although Indonesia has made some progress in combating corruption, graft remains a serious problem that impedes progress in fulfilling its human rights obligations.

A February 25 letter from Human Rights Watch to Obama highlighted a number of areas in which he should seek concrete human rights commitments from Yudhoyono. Human Rights Watch urged Obama to call for the release of the dozens of political prisoners, primarily from politically tense areas such as Papua and the Mollucas, imprisoned for engaging in nonviolent demonstrations, raising flags, and displaying pro-independence symbols.

Obama should also call for the repeal of laws that criminalize “insulting” public officials and defamation, which Indonesian authorities have used to silence anti-corruption activists, human rights defenders, and citizens who publicly aired consumer complaints or allegations of misconduct.

He should also call on the Indonesian government to take stronger efforts to protect members of religious minorities from discrimination and violence and to repeal dozens of laws that unfairly restrict the rights of women, discriminate against non-Muslims, and give the government the authority to prosecute people for holding religious beliefs it considers “blasphemous.” The religious affairs minister has repeatedly called for an outright ban of the Ahmadiyah, a minority who consider themselves Muslim but whom some other Muslims perceive to be heretics, and violence by Islamist militants against Ahmadi communities has increased.

“Media freedom has improved in Indonesia, but rights-respecting governments do not imprison people for peacefully airing critical views,” Richardson said. “Obama should also raise the plight of religious minorities and denounce laws that discriminate against women.”

Human Rights Watch urged Obama to call for Indonesia to restore free unhindered access for diplomats, foreign journalists, and human rights groups to the province of Papua, where the Indonesian military and police have frequently committed human rights abuses against civilians with impunity. In May 2009, the government closed the office of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Papua.

The release in October of a video showing the brutal torture of two Papuan men by Indonesian soldiers once again demonstrates the importance of ensuring effective prosecution of human rights violators, Human Rights Watch said. The government has promised to investigate, but Human Rights Watch emphasized that the trial should be open and transparent, charges should reflect the grievous level of torture inflicted, and those bearing command responsibility for these violations should also be prosecuted.

Human Rights Watch also reiterated its call for the government to revive a bill in the Indonesian parliament that would enable the government to prosecute members of the military who commit crimes against civilians before civilian courts, which offer better guarantees of an independent and effective remedy for the victims. Under the present system, such cases are usually handled by the military, with few cases ever making it to a tribunal. In the few cases that do, soldiers frequently face charges that do not reflect the scale of the abuse, and the trials lack transparency.

Human Rights Watch said that the US-Indonesia Comprehensive Partnership should address widespread corruption in the Indonesian bureaucracy and law enforcement system, which drains resources the government could be using to improve public services, including safeguarding the right to health. If, as US and Indonesian officials have suggested, the US intends to provide incentives for Indonesia to preserve its forests as a component of bilateral cooperation on climate change, Obama should press for those incentives to be linked to governance benchmarks, such as improving transparency and accountability in forestry data collection, Human Rights Watch said.

The decision of the Obama administration in July to lift a more than decade-long ban on US training and military assistance to Indonesia’s abusive Special Forces (Komando Pasukan Khusus, or Kopassus) has seriously compromised US commitment to promoting respect for human rights in Indonesia, Human Rights Watch said. Kopassus members also remain essentially unaccountable for past violations. At least 11 of 18 Kopassus soldiers that have been convicted by military tribunals for involvement in human rights abuses since 1998 are still serving in the military.

“The Obama administration has yet to realize that rewarding a military that has repeatedly thumbed its nose at accountability for serious human rights abuses is no way to encourage reform,” Richardson said. “This US government is essentially rewarding Kopassus for its intransigence and betraying Indonesians who have fought bravely for decades for accountability and justice.”

Kopassus was restricted from receiving US military training for over a decade as a result of its involvement in serious human rights abuses in East Timor, Aceh, and other areas. The US should require the following steps by Indonesia before engaging in any training or assistance activity:

• Kopassus should permanently discharge personnel convicted of abuse.
• Kopassus should commit to undertaking credible and impartial investigations of all future allegations of human rights abuse.
• Yudhoyono should establish, and Kopassus should pledge to cooperate with, an ad hoc tribunal to investigate the enforced disappearance of student activists in the late 1990s, as recommended by Indonesia’s House of Representatives in October 2009.

Indonesia should also move forward on its commitments to become a party to the Convention on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance to help prevent such abuses in the future.

On March 18, four prominent civil society organizations in Jakarta issued a statement calling on Obama to refrain from engaging further with Kopassus until the Indonesian military and government have acted on these three recommendations. Suciwati, the widow of slain human rights defender Munir Thalib, later said: “Indonesia has made much progress on the road to democracy and stability, but enhancing the reach of a powerful military force that lacks respect for the rule of law jeopardizes those hard-fought gains. Obama is rewarding Kopassus without requiring accountability. I fear that the Indonesian security services will again get away with murder.”

URL: www.hrw.org/en/news/2010/11/05/indonesia-obama-s...-human-rights