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Government urged to end bigotry in regions

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Jakarta – The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) has demanded more involvement from the central government in addressing a surge in cases of intolerance across the country.

Komnas HAM chairman Imdadun Rahmat said recently that President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo's administration had to be firm with local administrations in upholding religious freedom, as the latter were often part of the problem.

"Currently, the central government only makes promises to local administrations," Imdadun said at the launch of the commission's report on religious freedom at his office in Jakarta.

The report shows that the number of complaints regarding violations of religious freedom has risen over the past three years. In 2014, Komnas HAM recorded 74 complaints, while 89 complaints of alleged violations of religious freedom were filed last year.

"As of May, the number of complaints was 34. It is very likely that the number will increase until the end of this year," said Jayadi Damanik, Komnas HAM coordinator of religious freedom.

Local administrations were often the main actors in the violations reported in the first five months of this year, according to the report. Of the 34 complaints, 18 were attributed to local administrations. Mass organizations were the main non-state actors, with six complaints attributed to them.

The report also reveals that the highest number of complaints were related to bans on the building of places of worship, with 11 in total. This was followed by eight complaints related to Jamaah Ahmadiyah Indonesia (JAI) being prohibited from worshipping and two incidents of demolitions of places of worship.

"This has made them reluctant to protect minority groups from threats made by their neighbors or local intolerant groups. The Home Ministry and the Religious Affairs Ministry could disseminate those regulations so that local administrations have a good understanding of how to protect their citizens in terms of religious freedom," said Imdadun.

Jayadi said that the commission had received a complaint from the Pentecostal Church in Indonesia (GPdI) Sumedang, West Java, on June 3 that the local administration was still refusing to grant a permit for them to build a church.

"The church's parishioners have had to pray in a variety of places since 2012. We also found that a number of subdistrict officials did not give the church access to obtain the permit," Jayadi said.

On March 22, The commission also received complaints by JAI members in Subang, West Java, following a ban on them worshiping by an non-defined group. "The Subang district chief also demanded they cease the development of their mosque," Jayadi said.

Imdadun said there were no legal tools that provided directives on how to mitigate these two problems. "The central government has to create a road map to repatriate both the Ahmadiyah and Shiite refugees back to their hometowns."

Although, Jayadi applauded two local leaders in West Java who had tried to uphold religious freedom in their respective regions: Bandung Mayor Ridwan Kamil and Purwakarta Regent Dedi Jayadi. (mos)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/07/04/government-urged-end-bigotry-regions.html.