September 12, 2011
Human Rights Watch visited the GKI Yasmin church in Bogor on Sunday to make first-hand observations of the congregation conducting its service on the sidewalk due to the city government sealing off its building.
“Before today, we had only read and heard about the case,” said Tiranna Hassan, a representative for Asia from the New York-based organization.
She said any human rights violation in the dispute would be brought to the United Nations.
“We will also submit the report to the related institutions here and will submit the report as a recommendation for the Indonesian government,” she said.
The project is expected to be finished by November so it can be published next year, she added.
Bona Sigalingging, a spokesman for the church, said the congregation was continuing to try to get its building reopened. “We keep pushing [mayor Diani] Budiarto to unlock and unseal the church as soon as possible,” he said.
The Supreme Court ruled in December that the closure was unlawful and ordered its reopening, but the city government has ignored the ruling.
The mayor has used a number of reasons to keep the church closed, including the alleged use of fake signatures to secure its building permit.
Most recently, the mayor said the church could not be on a street that had an Islamic name.
Yasmin is located on Jalan Abdullah bin Nuh, named after an Islamic leader from Cianjur, West Java. However, local cleric Muhammad Mustofa, the son of the street’s namesake, has previously said that he had no objection to the church being on the street.
(X the JG)
ma 12 sep 2011 - 8:39