Camelia Pasandaran & Arientha Primanita – The government has said it will weigh in on the long-running standoff between the Bogor administration and a beleaguered Christian congregation.

Home Affairs Minister Gamawan Fauzi said on Tuesday that his office would evaluate whether the Bogor authorities had abused their power in repealing the building permit for the GKI Yasmin Church and sealing off its site in direct violation of a Supreme Court order.

"The authority to issue building permits is entirely up to each regional administration," he said. "So what we're evaluating is whether that authority was used in the right way or not."

He said the results of the evaluation would be announced at the end of the week.

Although in possession of a valid building permit issued in 2006, the church was sealed off by the Bogor authorities last year on the grounds that residents opposed the building of the church.

The Supreme Court in January ruled against the revocation of the church's permit and ordered the building reopened.

However, the city has refused to comply, citing a ruling by the Bogor District Court that church officials had falsified residents' signatures in order to get the building permit. Church officials have since reported the Bogor administration to the Ombudsman Commission for defying the Supreme Court ruling.

Gamawan said that if the Bogor administration was found to have made a mistake, "we can warn them."

"However, we need to listen to their argument," he said. "We'll also evaluate their authority and the court ruling. "If the latter isn't final, then both the city and the church have the same [legal] standing."

West Java Deputy Governor Dede Yusuf declined to comment on the proposed evaluation by the government, saying only that the issue should be settled through legal avenues. "We need to [call in] legal experts for this matter because it's a legal issue," he said.

He said that even though the initial building permit for the church had been revoked, the congregation could still apply for a new permit. He referred all questions on the issue to Bogor Mayor Diani Budiarto.

Dede denied the mayor was flouting the rule of law by ignoring the Supreme Court's order. "If the mayor decided on that option, then he must have legal considerations of his own," he said.

Involving the police could help to resolve the church dispute, Dede said. "The police could have the answers because there are many [law enforcement] aspects in this case."