Horrific Video Shows Brutality of Attack on Ahmadiyah
Horrifying video footage circulating among news organizations in Jakarta shows that Indonesian police were outnumbered and unable to prevent the brutal attacks on members of the Ahmadiyah sect that left three people dead on Sunday in a Banten village.
In the 30-minute video —apparently shot in secret by the Indonesian Ahmadiyah Congregation (JAI) — only about 30 police officers can be seen guarding the home of Ahmadiyah cleric Ismail Suparman.
They offer little resistance to a mob of about 1,500 people carrying bamboo planks and machetes, and are quickly overwhelmed.
Edited excerpts of the video have begun airing on Indonesian TV stations, but the most graphic violence has been left off the air, perhaps to avoid stirring up further religious hatred.
Twenty-one Ahmadi’s had been guarding Suparman’s house after he was detained by local police on suspicion he had been proselytizing, which is forbidden under a 2008 ministerial decree restricting Ahmadiyah’s actvities.
The video shows police attempting to persuade the Ahmadi to leave the house, with one plain-clothed officer filmed warning the group that a mob was headed for the village.
The mob subsequently stormed the village. There were no police barricades erected to prevent clashes.
“Police get out. Burn these Ahmadiyah people!” one man shouted.
The mob immediately attacked the house with rocks and the people inside were forced to flee.
A JAI official who shot the video said members of the mob wore green ribbons to differentiate friends from foes. “It was clear that they were prepared for an attack,” said the man, who spoke on the condition he not be named amid fears for his safety.
The footage also shows the mob swarming around two lifeless bodies covered in mud. The Ahmadiyah man said the pair were chased to a nearby rice field where they were killed with bamboo and stone strikes to their heads.
The crowd then dragged the bodies along the road. Others were filmed attacking the corpses.
The three people who were killed were identified as Roni, 30, Mulyadi, 30, and Tarno, 25. Five other Ahmadiyah members were severely wounded in the incident, including 45 year-old Deden Sujana, whose right arm was nearly severed by a machete.
Yudhoyono: Punish Banten Officials Guilty of Negligence
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Monday ordered a probe into the deadly attack on the Ahmadiyah community in Banten, including into negligence by local law enforcers and officials.
“I have ordered a full investigation, to find out the real cause and occurrence,” the president said.
“The purpose is that those who were negligent, guilty and violated the law must be punished.”
Violators could have come from both sides in the conflict, he said, but the probe should look specifically into whether there was negligence on the part of state authorities at the time of the attack.
“This includes if the clash could have actually been prevented, but prevention was done ineffectively, whether by the security apparatus or the local government,” he said.
“If this is this case, they need to be punished.”
His words came as one of his ministers said the sect deserved better protection, but another suggested followers could help themselves by detaching their beliefs from Islam.
Yudhoyono called on law enforcers and local military commands to be more proactive, professional and firm in preventing violence and taking action against those involved in attacks.
“I want all parties not to be lax, not to take this situation lightly,” he said.
“If there are signs [of conflict], take the appropriate measures, don’t wait until a clash and conflict erupt.”
Yudhoyono said he regretted the incident and offered his condolences to the victims’ families, but also hinted that the government would not revoke the 2008 joint ministerial decree on the Ahmadiyah, which he referred to as “the best option to solve the problem and to avoid horizontal conflicts.”
The decree prohibits Ahmadis from worshiping in public and from spreading their teachings but stops short of a ban on the sect.
“If the agreement was reached, embraced, abided to and implemented, then the conflicts, the physical clashes, the acts of violence could have been prevented,” he said.
Separately, Djoko Suyanto, coordinating minister for political, legal and security affairs, said on Monday that Ahmadiyah followers deserved to be protected like all Indonesians.
“They are our citizens, citizens of Indonesia whose safety is guaranteed and protected,” he said at the State Palace.
But he admitted that a solution for the sect’s troubles would not be easy to find.
“It is an issue of faith, belief, it is not easy to change someone’s mind-set,” he said, adding it was vital for law enforcers and communities to detect signs of conflict to prevent escalation.
Meanwhile, Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali said that to avoid animosity against the Ahmadiyah community, one option was for the sect to detach itself from Islam.
“Ahmadis can be asked to let go of their identity as part of Islam,” he said in Surabaya.
But he added he believed Ahmadis would refuse to leave Islam.
An Ahmadiyah spokesman, Firdaus Mubarik, told the Jakarta Globe that the solution offered by Suryadharma would not solve any problem as “belief is a very private matter.”
A similar solution imposed in Pakistan, he said, had only increased the number of victimized Ahmadis.
(x the Jak Globe)
ma 7 feb 2011 - 19:09
