NGOs concerned about Timor riots
JAKARTA (JP): Eleven non-governmental organizations expressed their joint concern yesterday with last month's episodes of religious and ethnic violence in the troubled East Timor.
They are demanding that legal action be taken against the rioters for vandalizing properties and harassing migrants.
The NGOs are Bina Desa, the Communion of Churches in Indonesia, the Institute for Policy Research and Advocacy, the Institute for Economic and Social Research, The Indonesian Environmental Forum, The Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation, the Social Development and Research Institute of the Indonesian Bishops Conference, the Association of Islamic Boarding Schools and Social Development, the International NGO Forum on Indonesian Development, the Indonesian Front for the Defense of Human Rights, and the NGO Network for Forest Conservation in Indonesia.
"Violent acts committed by the group of East Timorese on other groups of different ethnic and religious beliefs are criminal in nature and represent violations of human rights," the statement said.
Their statement came only days after the chief of the Indonesian Moslem Intellectuals Association, B.J. Habibie, said he was "astonished" that local NGOs had little to say about the incidents in the predominantly Roman Catholic territory.
According to Habibie, who is also the State Minister of Research and Technology, NGOs were prompt in reacting when churches were attacked by Moslems in a flare-up of religious violence in Java several years ago.
The NGOs called on the government yesterday to investigate the Dili incidents and punish those involved.
They also urged the government to give the public wider access to information on the problems appearing in East Timor and elsewhere.
Several marketplaces, mosques and Protestant churches were burned down, migrant houses attacked, vehicles set ablaze and more than a dozen people were arrested in the spate of incidents that occurred between Sept. 2 and 14.
The rioting was triggered by a Moslem prison official's statement that local Catholics found offensive.
Forum
Meanwhile Catholic, Protestant and Moslem leaders met in Dili on Wednesday to discuss preparations for the establishment of a religious communication forum. The forum is expected to help religious harmony in East Timor.
The meeting, led by East Timor's deputy governor, J. Haribowo, agreed to establish the communication forum in the near future.
"Each religious leader (in the meeting) agreed that such a forum is needed and should be established in the near future," Haribowo was quoted by Antara as saying.
The meeting, closed to the press, was attended by, among others, chairman of the East Timor office of the Indonesian Ulemas Council Abdullah Sagran, Catholic preacher Mgr. Jose Antonio da Costa, and a local NGO activist Florentino Sarmento. (imn)