RI ranks world's worst for religious disharmony

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia has been rated the worst in the world in terms of religious intolerance and persecution, the Indonesian Church Community (PGI) executives announced Wednesday.

The community's chairman Soelarso Sopater and Secretary- General J.M. Pattiasina briefed the media on Wednesday about the results of the recent World Churches Council (WCC) congress in Harare, Zimbabwe.

Along with council central committee member Natan Setiabudi and head of the PGI Research and Development division Karel Phil Erari, the church leaders expressed concern over what they said was political oppression of religious minorities.

The congress in Harare issued two recommendations: the status of Jerusalem should remain that of a shared city for all religions, and its stance on human rights, in which Indonesia was listed among countries such as Sudan, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh with strong religious intolerance phenomena.

The congress, held in conjunction with its 50th anniversary, was attended by South African President Nelson Mandela and President of Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe.

"Indonesia became the central topic in the WCC congress based on indicators such as the fact that the government cannot do anything in handling matters arising and that they just let things happen," Pattiasina said.

"And we believe that on the basis of the pattern of riots such as in Ketapang (West Jakarta), Kupang (East Nusa Tenggara), Ujungpandang (South Sulawesi) and most recently Bekasi on the outskirts of Jakarta we are looking at well organized crimes.

"The attacks against churches are not symptomatic of religious conflicts. They are politically engineered and there are some parties within the government who are involved... this makes it harder to enforce the law and uphold the truth," he said.

According to the PGI report in the Harare congress, 516 churches here were attacked in the past 32 years. A total of 415 of these were attacked in the past two years.

"The last figure includes 45 churches damaged during the 180 days of President B.J. Habibie's term over the past seven months," Karel said.

PGI -- comprising 74 churches in the country -- also called for political and security measures by the government which would better protect the Christian minority.

Muslims make up 87 percent of the 202 million population here, while the rest are Protestants, Catholics, Buddhists and Hindhu believers.

"We do not have social and political power here. That is why we are easily made scapegoats and victimized," Natan Setiabudi said.

The Asia Church Council and PGI will meet in a pastoral session with the government in January to further discuss the issue of human rights protection here.

The world congress in Harare also discussed and expressed concern over rapes during the May riots in Jakarta and other cities, and military atrocities in Aceh, East Timor and Irian Jaya provinces.

"And the church specifically urged reconciliation among Irianese people. We will try to socialize this through the churches," Pattiasina said.

Council

During the media briefing, the PGI also explained its stance on the Council for Enforcement of Security and Law, which will convene for the first time Wednesday morning. Habibie will chair the event.

The National Commission on Human Rights and the Indonesian Bishops Council (KWI) have both refused to join the council, which is aimed at controlling and coordinating efforts to resolve the crisis threatening national stability.

"We join the council because we want to receive first hand information. We do not want to remain passive.

"We are the minority who receive the impact of all these problems in security and law enforcement. Of course, we want to make sure that the government does something real," Sopater said. "However, if we felt the council's decisions were not suitable, we would quit."

"Much of the recent chaos must be solved by good political decisions," he said. (edt)