Margareth S. Aritonang, Jakarta – President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo's administration must end the impunity of hard-line groups that perpetrate violence and discrimination against religious minorities in the country, the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) said in recommendations included in its year-end report.
Komnas HAM highlighted that hard-line groups, which made up a small fraction of the community, could freely operate and gained power due to "privileges" given to them, especially by government officials and law-enforcement agencies.
"The privileges that such groups have been enjoying include impunity, when they get only the minimum sentence for committing violence against members of minority groups. Some criminal cases against these people have in fact been dropped," commissioner Imdadun Rahmat, Komnas HAM's special rapporteur on religious freedom, told a press briefing on Tuesday.
Imdadun further highlighted that the government's reluctance to punish members of radical groups had served to promote violence against members of the country's minority groups, as reflected in a rise in the number of complaints over discrimination recorded by Komnas HAM this year.
Komnas HAM recorded 67 complaints of religious discrimination in 2014, up from only 39 in 2013. The reports included the forced closure and destruction of places of worships; threats and physical violence against followers of minority faiths; and obstruction of worship. Komnas HAM recorded that the majority of the cases took place in West Java.
Besides non-state actors such as hard-line groups like the Islam Defenders Front (FPI) or the growing Bali Ajeg, which advocated the purity of Balinese culture, Komnas HAM said in its year-end report that heads of local governments, officials from the Religious Affairs Ministry and Home Ministry as well as members of law-enforcement agencies, including Jakarta's Public Order Agency (Satpol PP) and the National Police, were also responsible for religious discrimination against minority groups either by commission or omission.
In its report, Komnas HAM singled out local heads, officials from the Religious Affairs Ministry and members of the National Police for being responsible for shutting down churches and mosques run by the Ahmadiyah community in West Java.
In the report, Komnas HAM blasted the policy of the Religious Affairs Ministry to encourage members of the Ahmadiyah sect to return to "the right path of Islam" by setting up a government-funded special team in the ministry.
The involvement of state actors has also resulted in prolonged discrimination against several minority groups in other areas, such as the Ahmadiyah community in Mataram, West Nusa Tenggara; the Sampang Shiites in East Java; and parishioners of the Bogor-based Indonesian Christian Church (GKI) Yasmin and the Bekasi-based Congregation of Batak Protestant Churches (HKBP) Filadelfia in West Java.
Earlier on Monday, the National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan) released a study showing that women suffered the most from religious violence.
The commission found that women were prone to becoming victims of sexual violence, including rape, as they were considered a symbol of purity in the community. "Women with physical disabilities have suffered the most harassment," the study said.
The study also revealed that many women struggled with being stigmatized as "immoral women" when they tried to obtain documents like marriage certificates, especially when they did not belong to one of the six faiths recognized by the state.
Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/12/24/jokowi-must-end-religious-persecution.html