Ulma Haryanto – The National Commission on Human Rights on Friday blasted the Bogor Police and administration for failing to protect the rights of the GKI Yasmin congregation to practice their religion.
"What they did was a serious violation of the 1945 Constitution. They also defied the law by ignoring the court's ruling," said Johny Nelson Simanjuntak, a commissioner for monitoring and investigation for the body, also known as Komnas HAM.
The statement came after members of GKI Yasmin congregation went to the Komnas HAM office on Friday to plead for help after their church was locked and sealed by the Bogor administration in April.
The congregation, which has more than 300 members, has been struggling to get the local administration to allow them to build a church since 2001, when they managed to acquire 1,720 square meters of land in West Bogor.
"From 2002 to 2006 we approached local organizations including the MUI [Indonesian Ulema Council], and then a couple of months after the permit was finally issued [in July 2006], a group of people started showing up saying they didn't want to have a church there," Jayadi Damanik, a member of the congregation and its legal representative, told the Jakarta Globe.
A protest to the Bogor Legislative Council in February 2008 was used by the administration to freeze the church's building permit, and in March the congregation reported this case to Komnas HAM.
"We brought this case to the State Administrative Court [PTUN] in September 2008 and the court ruled in favor of us," Jayadi said. "However, the mayor appealed, saying that if he didn't, people might think he did not try hard enough."
The State Administrative Courts in Jakarta and Bandung both ruled in favor of the church, and this January construction resumed. "However, suddenly in March the municipality sealed the area before finally locking it up in April," Jayadi said.
"Is this how the country works? The local administration is above the law? We have at least three court rulings that confirmed the legality of the building, and yet they ignored this."
The locked gates have forced the congregation to hold prayers on the streets outside the construction area. "The last time there were even Satpol PP [public order] officers who tried to prevent our congregation from praying there," Jayadi said.
He claimed members of the congregation were continually intimidated by a group calling itself Communication Forum for Indonesian Muslims (Forkami).
"The group also tried to fabricate evidence and make false statements to the police that we had forged the signatures from the neighborhood back when we tried to apply for building permit," he said. "But we have proved them wrong, and the police are in the process of retracting the case."
The Rev. Gomar Gultom of the Indonesian Communion of Churches (PGI), who also attended the meeting with Komnas HAM, said the police had to be more professional and go back to their original function, which is to protect citizens.
"Usually whenever there's a church or school being vandalized, police just stand on the side, claiming they are outnumbered. But last week when the members of GKI Yasmin wanted to pray out on the streets, the police suddenly had a sufficient number of officers to shoo them away," he said.
Johny said, however, that Komnas HAM had no jurisdiction to approach protesting groups directly. "Our task is to monitor the state and its relations with its citizens. But when a conflict breaks out, then it is within our [jurisdiction] to step in and mediate," Johny said.
He said the commission planned to ask the National Police, the Bogor Police, the Ministry of Home Affairs and the West Java governor to "reprimand their subordinates." "We have two days before Sunday, and I hope the congregation can pray under protection of the police," Johny said.
With the half-finished church structure sealed off, the regional government is responsible for finding a new facility for the congregation to use, he said.