Batak reverends threaten to seek political asylum
JAKARTA (JP): Dissident reverends of the Toba Batak Protestant Church (HKBP) yesterday threatened to seek political asylum unless the Armed Forces Chief gives them a written guarantee of their safety.
The about 300 reverends and their congregations spent their fourth day staging a sit-in at the House of Representatives (DPR) foyer with no prospect of getting what they want.
"Seeking asylum would be our last resort. Now we are considering holding a rally at President Soeharto's office," Rev. Saut Sirait told The Jakarta Post.
The members of the North Sumatra-based church have been demonstrating their opposition to the military-appointed bishop P.W.T. Simanjuntak. They also alleged arrests and torture of members loyal to deposed bishop S.A.E. Nababan.
The military intervened in the conflict-ridden church last year and appointed Simanjuntak as the new bishop after a grand synod failed to elect a new leader.
Armed Forces Chief Gen. Feisal Tanjung, in a hearing with the House Tuesday, gave unwritten guarantee of their safety but the protesters demanded that it be provided in writing.
Sirait said the reverends and congregation members, who also demand a democratic grand synod, fear they would be subjected to arbitrary arrest and torture if they return to their villages.
"Without written guarantees from the ABRI chief, we would return and live in fear as usual," he said.
The protesters are confused by officials' Tuesday statements concerning the HKBP rift. Tanjung said although President Soeharto had given an audience to bishop Simanjuntak, it did not mean that the government recognizes him, but Minister of Home Affairs Moch. Yogie S.M. said he recognized only bishop Simanjuntak.
To dramatize their plight, Samuel Sitompul -- one of four church members allegedly tortured in detention and just out of the hospital in Jakarta -- appeared in the crowd.
Sitompul, a student of the HKBP School of Theology, appeared with scars on his arms and body he claimed he got from the burning cigarettes of his interrogators. He also was given a broken jaw during his one-day detention.
Treatment
He said three reverends, two of them joined in the demonstration, received similar treatment during their detention and were treated in the same hospital in Jakarta.
The protesters also had a color close-up photograph of a mutilated body of a man they identified as Herbert Hutasoit, a dissident church member who was found dead with his penis cut off and eyes gouged out.
They had turned the house's foyer into a low-class "hostel" where they spent the night on the floor with no apparent intervention from security guards.
Sirait said they had no financial problems because the collection they used to fund the activity was more than adequate for "several days".
Many of the reverends had put off their black robes and put on shirts. Even though legislators from the ABRI faction refused to meet them yesterday, they said they would go on protesting until they obtain the written guarantee.
"There is no stepping back," Sirait said.(pan)