The United Nations High Commissioner on Human Rights Navanethem Pillay
has strongly urged Indonesiato amend or repeal laws and regulations she deemed
discriminatory against religious minorities.
Pillay also urged the Indonesian
government to accept the presence of a UN special rapporteur on freedom of
religion as a response to the ongoing religious persecution in the country.
The Indonesian government is yet
to allow the presence of UN special rapporteurs on religion and on forced
disappearance, among other things.
She stressed the urgency for the
government to amend the 1965 Blasphemy Law, the 1969 and 2006 ministerial
decrees on building houses of worship and religious harmony, and the 2008 joint
ministerial decree on Ahmadiyah or risk the country’s pluralist nature being
hijacked by religious extremists.
"Indonesia has a rich
culture and history of diversity and tolerance, which has been nurtured over
many years. At the same time, it risks losing this if firm action is not taken
to address increasing levels of violence and hatred toward religious minorities
and narrow and extremist-interpretations of Islam," she told reporters at
the headquarters of the UN Mission in Indonesia yesterday.
Pillay said that she had met with
representatives from the Indonesian government and warned them of the dire
consequences of religious intolerance.
"I have met representatives
of the government and alerted them that small situations can develop into
serious situations, such as the exploitation of the ethnic division that we are
now seeing in Syria, which has become part of the political struggle," she
added.
The United Nations Human Rights
Council (UNHRC) had previously included such a recommendation on a list of 180
recommendations forwarded to the Indonesian government during a quadrennial
Universal Periodic Review last May.
The Indonesian government refused
to adopt the recommendation, arguing that those regulations were mandated by
the Constitution.
In the press briefing, Pillay
particularly highlighted the ongoing persecution against the Sampang Shia
community, members of the Ahmadiyah, as well as parishioners of the Taman
Yasmin Christian Church (GKI) and the Bekasi Filadelfia Church.
"I was distressed to hear
accounts of violence, attacks, forced displacement, denial of identification
cards and other forms of discrimination and harassment. I was also concerned to
hear that the police have been failing to provide adequate protection in these
cases," she said.
Other than religious persecution,
Pillay also spoke out about the persecution of human rights campaigners in the
country, including in Papua.
She also demanded a new probe
into the killing of human rights defender Munir Said Thalib, who was murdered
in 2004, as well as a review of the trial of former National Intelligence
Agency (BIN) deputy chairman Muchdi Purwoprandjono.
Pillay had met representatives
from Sampang's Shia community, the Ahmadiyah, the GKI Yasmin and the Filadelfia
Church on Sunday.
Unfortunately, she failed to
deliver the issue to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono because a meeting with
Yudhoyono "was not set up".
Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa
and Law and Human Rights Minister Amir Syamsudin declined to comment on the
situation when contacted by The Jakarta Post yesterday evening.
Margareth S.
Aritonang and Yohana Ririhena
Business & Investment Opportunities
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