Zaky Pawas – Public order and police officers in Bogor were injured on Monday after being pelted with rocks by protesters who were demonstrating against a building being torn down for operating as a prayer house without the proper permits.

Police said 10 people had been arrested for instigating the violent clashes, which occurred at about 9 a.m. after hundreds of demonstrators tried to block officers from the Bogor Public Order Office (Satpol PP) from approaching the building in the Bakom area of Limusnunggal village in Cileungsi subdistrict.

Bogor Police Chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Tomex Kurniawan said he did not believe the suspects were from the area.

"They could be paid demonstrators," he said. "They are not locals and we will question them. We have also seized a truck, stones, blocks of wood and bamboo sticks as evidence."

The building had been used by some 200 members of a Pentecostal church for their weekly prayer meetings.

Before the clash, Satpol PP and Bogor Police officers held a dialogue with the protesters, who claimed that they had never received a notice from the city administration regarding the demolition plans. The Satpol PP officers, however, insisted that warning letters had previously been sent.

Despite the violence, the building was torn down by 1 p.m. as the demonstrators looked on. When the dust settled, eight public order officers, three police officers and a resident were left with head injuries as a result of the stone-throwing.

According to Bogor's Satpol PP chief, Dace Supriadi, the building needed to be dismantled because it was violating its existing permit. "The building did not have the permit to serve as a prayer house," he said.

But Hotlan Parlaungan Silaen, a member of the Pentecostal congregation that used the prayer house, insisted the administration was wrong.

"We received 120 signatures from locals who approved the construction of the building to conduct prayers," he said, adding that not a single resident had been disturbed by the prayer meetings in the area. "They all agreed," Hotlan said, as he blamed the police for not remaining neutral in the matter.

According to Hotlan, the Satpol PP officers were willing to back down but the police insisted on the building coming down. "We will take the Bogor administration to court," he said. "The administration is against us minorities. All we want to do is pray. We will now just have to set up tents to pray."

Bogor, a city in the hills to Jakarta's south, has been identified by the Setara Institute for Democracy and Peace as one of the areas, along with neighboring Bekasi and Tangerang, currently experiencing a "radicalization phenomenon."

According to the human rights group's research, at least 291 acts of religious violence occurred last year across 12 provinces. West Java had the highest number with 57 incidents, followed by Jakarta with 38. Both Bogor and Bekasi are in West Java.

The Bogor administration in March, citing objections from residents, halted construction on and sealed off GKI Yasmin Church, forcing the congregation to hold prayers on the street in front of the building site in West Bogor.

In April, the subdistrict head and police chief of Parung, north of Bogor, warned members of St. Joannes Baptista Catholic Church to stop their religious activities because residents did not want Good Friday to be celebrated there.

Bona Sigalingging, a member of GKI Yasmin Church, said the closures and similar incidents pointed to the marginalization of religious minorities in the area. "Fundamentalist groups seem to be controlling these local administrations," Bona told the Jakarta Globe on Monday.

"This is not about each region acting of its own accord. It feels more and more like systematic discrimination against religious minority groups."

Theophilus Bela, secretary general of the Indonesian Committee of Religions for Peace, has said that freedom to worship is being restricted more openly with help from local governments, with building permits often being used as an excuse to shut down churches or to disrupt prayer services.