APSN | Rights body blames government for eviction of ex-Gafatar members

Home > South-East Asia >> Indonesia

Rights body blames government for eviction of ex-Gafatar members

Jakarta Post - January 23, 2016

Local administrations main violators of religious freedom – Jakarta Post. January 19, 2016
Radicals threaten Yogyakarta interfaith event – Jakarta Post. December 15, 2015
Government still failing to promote pluralism in basic education – Jakarta Post. December 10, 2015
Police circular may threaten minorities – Jakarta Post. December 2, 2015
Government 'turns a blind eye' to religious intolerance – Jakarta Post. December 1, 2015

Jakarta – The government is responsible for the eviction of over 500 former Fajar Nusantara Movement (Gafatar) members from their homes and agricultural areas in West Kalimantan by locals because the government has failed to act as a mediator, the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) has said.

Komnas HAM commissioner Nur Kholis particularly blamed the Religious Affairs Ministry because, according to him, it had failed to prevent the burning of ex-Gafatar member's homes in West Kalimantan, forcing them to flee their properties.

"The Religious Affairs Ministry should have acted as a mediator so as to gain the trust of citizens," said Nur in Jakarta on Saturday as reported by tribunnews.com.

Minister Lukman Hakim Saifuddin has said Gafatar is an illegal organization that must not be followed by community members. Its spiritual leader, Ahmad Musadeq, was sentenced to four years in prison in 2008 for religious defamation after he declared himself prophet. The organization has also been has been linked to the disappearance of at least a dozen people.

Police and military personnel relocated hundreds of former members of Gafatar to Pontianak, West Kalimantan, following the burning of their homes in Mempawah regency earlier this week. The former Gafatar members were placed in temporary military shelters. Some of the evicted people, however, have returned to their hometowns in East and Central Java.

Meanwhile, deputy coordinator of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) Puri Kenjana Putri questioned the eviction of former Gafatar members, saying that the group of people had contributed to society.

"They have tried to encourage each other to develop agriculture in an effort to have food security," said Puri, referring to the former Gafatar members, who preferred living in remote areas of Kalimantan to develop agricultural businesses.

House of Representatives Commission III overseeing security affairs member Tengku Taufiqulhadi said that the government should have monitored the activities of Ahmad if the government considered his organization illegal. "If the government knew what it was doing then such evictions would not have happened," Taufiqulhadi said. (bbn)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/01/23/rights-body-blames-government-eviction-ex-gafatar-members.html.