Jakarta – Members of two Christian congregations in Greater Jakarta who faced intimidation when trying to worship in their churches during Christmas have again lamented the police's failure to protect them.
The parishioners of the Filadelfia Batak Christian Protestant Church (HKBP) in Bekasi, West Java, were showered with sewage and rotten eggs by hard-line locals when approaching their half-built church on Monday, Christmas night.
The incident was the latest in a series of clashes between members of the congregation and locals who strongly object to the construction of the church, declared illegal by the Bekasi administration.
Rev. Palti Panjaitan from the HKBP church said that the police officers were reluctant to protect their constitutional right to freedom of worship and bowed to pressure from the locals.
"During the attack, Tambun Police chief Comr. Andri Ananta and North Tambun district head Suhartono did nothing," Palti said during a press conference at Jakarta Legal Aid Institute (LBH Jakarta) headquarters on Wednesday.
The police have denied the accusation, saying that they had taken the necessary measures to prevent clashes between the locals and the churchgoers.
"We had made attempts to secure the area and called on the people to avoid clashes," National Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Agus Rianto said as quoted by kompas.com on Tuesday. He said the locals did not want parishioners to conduct services in the area as the existence of the church was legally disputed.
The Yasmin Indonesian Christian Church (GKI) congregation, whose church in Bogor remains sealed, also complained about the police's inability to protect them from the intimidation by local thugs. Church spokesperson, Bona Sigalingging, suspected that the gang of hooligans had been in cahoots with police officers for years.
"According to our photo and video documentation, the same man led attacks against our congregation on Christmas Eve in two consecutive years," he said, while pointing at photos of an unidentified man in a black robe near the church. "As we can see, he is standing beside a smiling bald man who turns out to be West Java Police officer, Adj. Sr. Comr. Pria Supriadi," Bona explained.
Bona added that the local police had been leaking information about the congregation's activities to the hard-line group. "Every time we communicated about our Sunday services to the police, the thugs turn up and attacks us. Since we stopped coordinating with the police in February, we have never faced any intimidation," he said.
The intimidation reflects governmental inability to deal with intolerance. Worshippers faced Christmas with fear. Bogor and Bekasi administrations are actively involved in the intimidation," Febi Yonesta, an LBH Jakarta researcher, told journalists. (yps)