Demand President Jokowi Support Justice for All in San Francisco

Demand President Jokowi Support Justice for All

Location  : The Palace of Fine Art Theatre
Address  :  3301 Lyon Street, San Francisco, CA 94123
Time      :  February 16, 5:30 - 7:30 p.m.
Contact: Peter Phwan, ETAN/ICANet, SF (415) 812-2414
Muhamad Amin, San Francisco (415) 412-6372
John M. Miller, East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN), +1-917-690-4391john@etan.org

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1231440526883481/

Indonesia's President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo is back in the United States for the US-ASEAN Summit Meeting near Palm Springs, CA. On February 16, President Jokowi will meet and address Indonesians in San Francisco before touring Silicon Valley hi-tech companies. 

This trip will be all about business. Jokowi was elected with the promise that his administration would be different. He has yet to fulfill this promises on human right and many other issues. Positive initiatives by President Jokowi have been undermined by his own officials and many important issues, such as justice and accountability for past human rights crimes, have not been seriously addressed. 

Please join us on February 16 as we break the silence and demand that President Jokowi seriously address the following issues:

1. Indonesia must reveal the truth and provide justice for past human rights violations from the mass killings in 1965 on to the illegal invasion and occupation of East Timor
It is 50 years since Suharto's 1965 seizure of power and 40 years after Indonesia's illegal invasion of East Timor (Timor-Leste). During Suharto's decades in power, Indonesian security forces and their proxies killed hundreds of thousands. Indonesia has taken only halting steps to acknowledge these crimes against humanity and has yet to take serious steps to hold those responsible for the crimes committed throughout the archipelago from Aceh to Timor-Leste (East Timor) to West Papua. Many of those responsible maintain powerful positions, including in Widodo's own political party and administration. Refusing to acknowledge the past, the Indonesian military is increasingly re-inserting itself into domestic affairs.

2. End the Persecution of Religious Minorities 

Religious minorities in Indonesia remain under threat. The recent burning of churches in Aceh and bans on Ahmadi worship are among the most recent examples. Followers of minority religions continue to face persecution and to have trouble opening houses of worship, including GKI Yasmin and HKBP Philadelphia churches. Many localities enforce discriminatory regulations in violation of national law.

3. End the Persecution of Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender people

Public officials have made a series of troubling anti-gay statements, urging barring LGBT people from universities and other institutions. Recently, the Communication and Information Ministry threatened to ban gay and lesbian emoji or stickers in WhatsApp, Facebook andTwitter.

4. Stop Human Right Violations in West Papua

While Jokowi has promised a new deal for Papua, many of those promises remain unfulfilled. About 40 political prisoners remain in jail and the rules governing media access remain murky. West Papuans advocating for freedom face harassment, arrest or worse. Expanded "development" projects threaten indigenous rights and livelihoods. Indonesia continues to rebuff appeals for direct dialogue with the independence movement.

5. Protect the Environment, Stop Deforestation

Indonesia's forests continue to be stripped to establish palm oil and other plantation agriculture. The rate of deforestation is among the worst in the world. Illegal logging is often facilitated by lax enforcement and corrupt military and police. Haze from the seasonal burning of forests in Indonesia affects the health and well-being of millions in several Southeast Asian countries. Plans to add additional coal-fired electric plants also pose health hazards and will contribute to climate change that already threatens Indonesia's coral and coasts. The massive Benoa Bay Reclamation Project would destroy a large conservation area in Bali for hotels and tourism.

Join ETAN's email listservs on Timor-Leste, Indonesia and West Papuahttps://fs20.formsite.com/jmm555/form2/index.html

Now out - April 2015 West Papua Report

Now out - April 2015 West Papua Report
Read report here

CONTENTS

This edition's PERSPECTIVE provides a detailed overview of the Tolikara incident in which security force fired on a demonstration by Christian Papuans killed one and injured 11 others. The demonstrators then attacked a Muslim community, burning kiosks and a mosque. Years of government "transmigration" policies and neglect of Papuans have left West Papua a powder keg. Despite this, the local Tolikara community has come together to resolve tensions.In UPDATE: Pressure is growing on the Indonesian government to credibly investigate the December 14, 2014 murder of four West Papuans by security forces. The National Human Rights Commission (Komnas Ham) "Ad Hoc Investigation" has made little headway and competing security force investigations appear aimed at pressuring victim families to abandon efforts to force accountability. Negotiations between the Indonesian government and mining giant Freeport McMoRan have led to a six month extension of its license. Talks to renew its contract have not yet gotten underway and are essential if Freeport operations are to continue past 2021. There are growing calls to reduce security forces in West Papua.
In CHRONICLE: Demographic trends in West Papua which have seen the reduction of Papuans to the status of a minority in their own land. Renowned human rights campaigner Carmel Budiardjo calls into question the United Kingdom's cooperation with the Indonesian government. AWest Papua "embassy" was temporarily set up in Darwin. The Pacific Islands Forum was urged to put West Papua on its agenda.
 

Grasburg Mine in West Papua

ETAN and WPAT on Obama's Upcoming Trip to Indonesia

UPDATE: Obama is not going to Indonesia because of U.S. government shutdown. Our criticisms of U.S. policy to Indonesia remain; the policy needs to change.

Read: ETAN Urges President Obama to Put Human Rights at Center of U.S.-Indonesia Relations During Upcoming Visit to Indonesia

excerpts:

“The U.S. must not ignore injustice and human rights violations to advance narrow strategic and economic interests that have little to do with the well-being of the U.S. or Indonesian people,” said ETAN National Coordinator John M. Miller. “While much has changed in Indonesia since the Suharto dictatorship, U.S. security assistance does not promote further change. Instead it encourages impunity and further violations of human rights.” 

“We are calling for a new relationship between the two countries built on an honest assessment of the bloody past,” said Miller. “Instead of offering more weapons and more training to Indonesia’s military, President Obama should suspend this assistance until there is an end to abuses and real accountability for past human rights crimes.”

We are calling for a new relationship between the two countries built on an honest assessment of the bloody past.

Since Obama's last visit to Indonesia, the human rights situation has deteriorated in West Papua and religious intolerance has grown.

“President Obama can send a strong message against impunity by making clear he and and other senior U.S. officials will not to meet with any Indonesian politicians -- including likely presidential candidates, such as retired generals Prabowo and Wiranto -- who have been credibly accused of human rights and other crimes,” said Miller.

The two presidents.

Read: West Papua Advocacy Team Open Letter to President Obama

excerpts: 

This year marks 50 years of Indonesian rule over West Papua, which had previously been a Dutch colony slated for independence. Half a century of Indonesian rule has seen West Papua subjected to crimes against humanity, according to numerous credible human rights reports. Half a century of colonization of one people by the armed forces of another has taken place. Half a century of ongoing conflict has been the result. To resolve the conflict peacefully, international mediation is needed. West Papua was delivered to Indonesian rule as a result of American mediation, which confers upon the United States a special responsibility to act to resolve the current conflict peacefully.

and

The increasing militarization of West Papua indicates that there is no let-up in sight to the half-century of widespread violations of basic human rights in West Papua. If Indonesia is democratizing, the reverse is the case in West Papua.

We therefore recommend that on your trip to Indonesia, you:

1. Press for a dialogue between the Indonesian government and West Papuan civil society, with international third-party mediation, along the lines of the successful international medication of the Aceh conflict in 2005. Current policy is not advancing dialogue. Internationally-mediated dialogue is a growing call from civil society voices in both West Papua and Indonesia.
2. Halt military assistance to the Indonesian security forces. United States cooperation with the most brutal elements of the security forces encourages the climate of impunity, and United States sale of Apache helicopters increases the repressive capacity of the security forces in West Papua. Cooperation with the Kopassus Special Forces and Detachment 88of the Indonesian National Police should be suspended pending an improvement of the human rights situation in West Papua and the initiation of dialogue, and the agreement to provide Apache helicopters should be cancelled. Non-military ties should continue to expand but military cooperation be made conditional on respect for human rights in West Papua, as it was with respect to the Timor-Leste situation prior to Timor-Leste's independence.
3. Press for open access to West Papua by international observers, NGOs and others, so that the conflict will no longer be hidden.
4. Support efforts from within Melanesia to address the root causes of the conflict in West Papua, the denial of self-determination and the persistence of repressive policies by the Indonesian security forces.
5. Press President Yudhoyono to order a halt to security forces' violations of the human rights of West Papuan civilians, and hold security personnel accountable for their crimes by laying charges, where evidence merits, in civilian courts.

West Papua Advocacy Team

Making a difference

Rev. Elice Higginbotham

East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN)

August  2013

Protester with signs outside ETAN's protest of the Appeal to Conscience award's ceremony in New York City. Photo by John M. Miller/ETAN.

Dear friend:

Do you ever wonder if signing a petition makes a difference?

Last spring, some shocked Indonesians informed ETAN that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was to be honored by the New York-based Appeal of Conscience Foundation, an organization dedicated (it said) to religious tolerance and human rights. Our immediate response was to organize protests against giving the "World Statesman Award" to SBY. Among other actions, we organized online petition that many of you signed.

I am writing to urge you to support ETAN by making a contribution today. Please go to www.etan.org/etan/donate1.htm to donate.

More than 2,000 of you spoke out against the award to SBY by signing ETAN’s petition. The petition motivated a spin-off in Indonesia, which gathered an additional 6,000 signatures, mostly from amazed, amused or outraged Indonesians. I was in Jakarta during this time and many Indonesians expressed their appreciation for ETAN's actions.

We weren’t surprised when SBY did, indeed come to New York to accept the “World Statesman Award.” Our old antagonist, Henry Kissinger, was on hand to present it at a big-ticket fundraising dinner. But so was ETAN’s “welcoming committee” of Indonesian, U.S. and other human rights advocates, who protested the award and spoke out about SBY’s real record on human rights, religious tolerance, and the rule of law in Indonesia.

Our actions helped to draw attention to Indonesia’s continued persecution of religious minorities and other human rights violations. For the first time the semi-weekly public protests by religious minorities in front of the National Palace in Jakarta drew regular media attention. Letters and other denunciations of the award from academics, rights activists, religious figures, and others generated news in Indonesia for weeks prior to the awards ceremony. Calls for SBY to make good on the promises he made in his acceptance speech continue to this day.

We were interested to learn just how “threatening” Indonesia’s diplomats find ETAN. We were told of a meeting among U.S.-based diplomats who blamed ETAN, among others, for the uproar about the award. We heard from Indonesians living in the New York area who had received offers of dollars and dinner to fill seats at the award presentation. Those bused in were forced to participate in a “counter-demonstration” aimed at covering up the truths that ETAN was exposing. We do not have access to the discretionary funds of the Indonesian Embassy; our protest was smaller, but all the more genuine.

Your signature made a difference. And so can your donation.

The “No Award for SBY” petition represents just one of ETAN’s deceptively modest efforts to keep Indonesia - and its continued military and economic support from the U.S. - in the public eye and before policymakers. These efforts have been making a difference for more than two decades and, with your support, will continue to do so.

Please contribute what you can. We depend on support from people like you. People who are dedicated to human and civil rights for the peoples of Indonesia.

Your financial contribution to ETAN will make a difference. With your help, ETAN can continue to:

• Keep you and others informed about violations of human rights, the role of corporate interests and other developments in West Papua through our monthly report,
  
• Respond to calls for action in response to reports of human rights violations,
  
• Provide firsthand reports on elections, legislation, economic development in Indonesia, West Papua, and Timor-Leste,
  
• Keep you aware of the influence of U.S. policy on events in Timor-Leste, Indonesia and West Papua – and keep U.S. and Indonesian policymakers aware that we are watching them.

Please see our website for information about our current campaigns.

Please give generously, so that together we can continue to make a difference. 
In solidarity,

Elice HigginbothamMember, Board of Directors, ETAN

P.S. Please consider becoming an ETAN sustainer by making a monthly donation by credit card. Help put ETAN on a firmer financial footing: information here.  

View from Jakarta: World Statements Against Religious Violence

SBY Is No Statesman! Peaceful Picket Thursday, May 30, 2013, 5:30-7:30pmThe Pierre Hotel, 2 E 61st St., New York City Oppose the World Statesman Award to President Yudhoyono  from the Appeal of Conscience Foundation Bring your own signs and banners highlighting the ongoing human rights issues in Indonesia, including attacks on religious freedom, lack of justice for past human rights violations, and ongoing rights abuses in West Papua and elsewhere. Event on Facebook (Should the Appeal of Conscience Foundation withdraw the award, we will hold a celebration outside the hotel.) Map Download, print and distribute flyer promoting demonstration (PDF) contact ETAN for more information or to help

by Rev. Elice Higginbotham, 

Member, Executive Committee, East Timor and Indonesia Action Network

JAKARTA, May 26 – The President was absent from the presentation ceremony for his award.

So the crowd of Christians, Shia and Amhadiyya Muslims, followers of indigenous religions, women’s rights advocates,and other victims of violence against religious and other minorities carried the “World Statements Against Religious Violence” Award through the streets of Jakarta’s National Palace District and presented it at the palace gate.

SBY was not really expected at a Christian worship service, particularly not the semi-weekly presence of the congregations and friends of the GKI Yasmin and the HKPB Fildelfia congregations who conduct an open-air, right-under-his-nose service to remind him, and the surrounding city, that they are not permitted to worship on their own property because the state refuses to enforce their constitutionally guaranteed rights.

Today’s service, however, was an expanded, multi-faith event, intended to highlight widespread opposition to/offense at the “World Statesman Award” from the New York-based Appeal of Conscience Foundation, slated for presentation on May 30.  We arrived a little early to find a gathering crowd carrying both handmade signs and organizational banners, including demonstrators and speakers from beyond Jakarta, some from as far away as Aceh and Kupang.  As the service began, two women, one wearing a sash saying “No Award to SBY,” lay down at the front of the crowd to represent victims killed in religious violence.

(For the first time in my experience in Indonesia, I was questioned by police.  A rather quick and clever woman danced over to me, waving her cellphone camera, and asked what Indonesians occasionally do when encountering a foreigner in an interesting public spot – “Photo?  Take my photo with you?”  She handed her  camera to someone else in the crowd and put her arm around me, beaming into the sunshine. Then… she began asking me who I was, why I was there, how I found out about the event.  Simply on the basis of her appearance, I unconsciously assumed she was part of the demo.  However, few minutes later, I saw her chatting with uniformed police on the sidelines of the demonstration area; she caught my eye, called me over, and asked me to reiterate my information, which I realized she was writing down.  I stopped and asked, “Excuse me, may I ask who wants to know?”  Smiling  her friendly smile, she said, “I’m a policewoman.”  A journalist friend commented later that I’d probably been noted as the first obvious foreigner on the scene.)


Aside from the presence of more cameras and a more diverse congregation (and the two “dead” women), the service was its usual, thoughtfully-prepared fairly ordinary Christian Sunday worship, distinguished only by the multiplicity of posters and signs calling for implementation of religious rights and the concluding enthusiastic unison rendition of the National Anthem.  As the worship concluded,  however, it was clear that things weren’t over.

A six-foot-high, black-draped object, looking like a tall black ghost, was rolled out.  Representatives of the various groups recently victimized by religious violence took their places at the front.  And, instead of the “World Statesman” Award – the “World Statements Against Religious Violence” Award was unveiled: a gold foil-covered tower, topped by the Indonesian symbols of Garuda and Pancasila, and decorated with photo after photo of incidents of religious violence in Indonesia… burning churches… bruised bodies… disrupted worship services… demonstrations… funerals….

Representatives of victimized groups each made their statements, witnessing to personal and community suffering.  Concluding prayer was offered.

Then the monument was lifted up onto shoulders and carried toward the street.  Police officers (colleagues of the woman who questioned me) obligingly stopped traffic as the crowd crossed, SBY’s award moving ahead of us, leading us toward the entrance to the National Palace.  The crowd sang patriotic songs.

We were greeted by an unsurprisingly closed and well-guarded gate.  A pastor made a statement about the award and about our presence, and then turned to the security guards on the other side of the gate.  A period of negotiation ensued, resulting in what appeared to be an agreement  to open the gate just enough to allow the award to the slipped through, with a note of explanation to the President.  Someone bent a back to offer a flat surface, someone else wrote the note, which was handed to a guard, and the golden tower was passed through the gate and onto the Palace grounds.

Cameras clicked, more patriotic choruses were sung as the “World Statements Against Religious Violence” Award was hoisted onto the shoulders of Palace security personnel, carried along the path until it disappeared around a corner, looking for all the world as if borne by a guard of honor.

see also 

• View from Jakarta: The room was papered - literally - with signatures
• View from Jakarta: No World Statesman Award for Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono
• ETAN: Urge the Appeal of Conscience Foundation to Withdraw World Statesman Award to Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono

 

View from Jakarta: The room was papered - literally - with signatures

SBY Is No Statesman! Peaceful Picket Thursday, May 30, 2013, 5:30-7:30pm The Pierre Hotel, 2 E 61st St., New York City Oppose the World Statesman Award to President Yudhoyono  from the Appeal of Conscience Foundation Bring your own signs and banners highlighting the ongoing human rights issues in Indonesia, including attacks on religious freedom, lack of justice for past human rights violations, and ongoing rights abuses in West Papua and elsewhere. Event on Facebook (Should the Appeal of Conscience Foundation withdraw the award, we will hold a celebration outside the hotel.) Map Download, print and distribute flyer promoting demonstration (PDF) contact ETAN for more information or to help

by Rev. Elice Higginbotham, 

Member, Executive Committee, East Timor and Indonesia Action Network

JAKARTA  -- The room was papered - literally - with signatures.

The Setara Institute for Democracy and Peace convened a media conference of the Civil Society Coalition for Freedom of Religion/Conviction Thursday, May 23, at a Jakarta hotel. A wide range of NGOs, human rights organizations, and representatives of minority religious organizations - non-Sunni Muslims, Christians, "non-recognized" religious groups - gathered to express their opposition to the "World Statesman Award" that the New York-based Appeal of Conscience Foundation proposes to present on May 30 to Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. 

"No Award For SBY," an on-line petition by ETAN and another Indonesia-based one, were the visual symbols of broad, unified Indonesian and international opposition to the Foundation's choice: The walls of the room were covered with page after page of the names of signers, surrounding the 17 speakers, the TV cameras, print reporters, bloggers and interested others. 

Petition signatures paper the wall.

I met and spoke briefly with Imam Shofwan, a young journalist who grew up in a traditional Islamic political organization. He expresses deep offense at the idea of honoring SBY while religious violence is on the increase in Indonesia and the government refuses to enforce the rights of religious minorities.  Imam generated his own on-line petition, initially in support of an open letter by an Indonesian Jesuit professor of philosophy who wrote the Appeal of Conscience Foundation a painstakingly-worded critique of SBY's failures of leadership with regard to the protection of minority rights. Imam's petition, posted only a couple weeks ago, hit an instant chord in Indonesia. Signatures, now merged with those of ETAN's petition, total close to 6,000, says Imam. 

"Some government spokespeople told me that Muslims are very angry at [the Jesuit Professor] Romo Suseno's letter, that this is a Muslin country and I shouldn't be supporting someone who speaks badly of us.  I told them to look at the 6,000 signatures!" Imam told me.

Among the speakers was an early ETAN activist, the Rev. Max Surjadinata, who attempted to meet with the Appeal to Conscience's president  during a recent visit to New York and deliver letters expressing opposition to the award from the GKI Yasmin and HKBP Filadelfia churches, which represent two of the more public recent examples of religious discrimination and violence in Indonesia.  Although he had been given an appointment upon phoning the Foundation, Max was rebuffed by security staff when he arrived at the door.  The guard took the letters, saying he would make sure they were delivered.

The Yasmin and Filadelfia congregations are still waiting for an answer.

View from Jakarta: No World Statesman Award for Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono

Sign the petition here: www.change.org/SBYNoStatesman

Multi-faith demonstrators marching on the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta.

View from Jakarta
Rev. Elice Higginbotham, 
Member, Executive Committee, East Timor and Indonesia Action Network

JAKARTA, May 22, 2013 --  The announcement, just a couple months ago, that Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY)  would receive a not terribly prestigious award from a not particularly well-known U.S  foundation has generated unprecedented flap in this city.  

The “World Statesman Award,” and the New York-based Appeal of Conscience Foundation that proposes to make the presentation on May 30 at a (what else?) gala fundraising dinner, evoke scarcely a sign of recognition among the general public almost anywhere – quite unlike, for example, SBY’s recent achievement of knighthood at the hand of the Queen of England, an honor with considerable international cultural resonance. The recognition by the Queen generated, in conversation among Indonesians, either enthusiastic approval or uproarious derision, but little else.

On the other hand, “Appeal of Conscience” and “World Statesman” have touched a nerve. 

Easter Sunday in front of the Presidential Palace. Worshipers decorate

 a giant Easter Egg with messages for SBY, hoping for a "resurrection" 

of their right to Freedom of Religion!  (SBY refused the present.)

No day has gone by in recent weeks without a public statement or news release, a newspaper, TV, blog or other internet reference, and public demonstrations have included faces and voices, particularly religious ones, that seldom appear in public, still more rarely together.   Human rights activists, NGOs, Christians and Muslims are united in their effort to make the Appeal of  Conscience Foundation aware that it has made a grave mistake.


ETAN has joined the protest. 
I recently attended  a service by the under-threat GKI Yasmin church.  One of the church leaders spoke about their ongoing effort to bring before the Appeal of Conscience the folly of its decision to promote SBY as a "statesman" of world renown, which gave me the opportunity to talk about ETAN's petition and other organizing endeavors, which received claps and cheers. 

ETAN is circulating a petition opposing the award and plan a demonstration - should the award go ahead - for May 30 in New York City at the hotel where the gala will take place.

The GKI Yasmin congregation following worship on Pentecost Sunday. 

Front row are the multilingual 'prayers' including yours truly.

SIGN THE PETITION

Urge the Appeal to Conscience Foundation to Withdraw World Statesman Award to Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono

Sign the petition here

Petisi kepada Rabbi Arthur Schneier

Please e-mail us to be notified of details of any protest at the award ceremony in NYC  should the award go forward.

Urge the Appeal to Conscience Foundation to Withdraw World Statesman Award to Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono

Petition to Appeal to Conscience Foundation

We, the undersigned urge the Appeal to Conscience Foundation to withdraw its World Statesman Award to Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. This award shocks our conscience.

On May 6 in Jakarta, a coalition of victims of religious discrimination and human rights groups in Indonesia urged the foundation to drop its plan to give the award. We support this call.

The foundation says that it works "on behalf of religious freedom and human rights throughout the world" and "promotes peace, tolerance and ethnic conflict resolution."

It is regrettable that the foundation is so ready to bestow such an award without first seriously examining the situation in the country to see if the recipient truly merits the award.

In Indonesia there is continuing religious violence, governmental inaction, and official impunity. Giving President Yudhoyono the World Statesman Award dishonors to both the foundation and mocks its recipient.

Under President Yudhoyono’s leadership, religious intolerance in Indonesia has escalated. Houses of worship have been attacked and the followers of religious minority faiths have faced discrimination, assault and worse. Police and public officials often refuse to stand up to the intolerant bullies. Sometimes they take the side of the attackers, using their office to spread bigotry and enforce discrimination.

President Yudhoyono has established an unprecedented discriminatory legal infrastructure in Indonesia. He has issued a discriminatory regulations, defended the blasphemy law at the Constitutional Court, and promulgated a decree threatening to five years in jail for anyone who “propagates” the Ahmadiyah teaching.

In recent years conflict and repression have escalated in West Papua, where its indigenous people face discrimination in their own land. At the end of April, there were at least 40 Papuan political prisoners.

Under President Yudhoyono leadership, impunity continues for past crimes against humanity and war crimes. Police and military often act with limited accountability throughout the archipelago.

Sign petition here

Background

The Appeal to Conscience Foundation plans to give the award to President Yudhoyono on May 30 in New York City.

When President Yudhoyono first took office, he promised that his administration would promote human rights and tolerance. Nine years later, the prospects for accountability for past rights violations have receded; religious intolerance has grown. Indonesia’s security forces have become increasingly abusive in West Papua. Police and soldiers who violate human rights are rarely held accountable. Serious human rights violations by members of the military are tried in military courts where soldiers, if convicted, receive light sentences.

Recent examples of religious persecution include the March 21 demolition of the HKBP Taman Sari church in Bekasi after an order from the regional government. Four Ahmadiyya places of worship were closed within a month in West Java. Last August, members of the Shia community in Sampang, East Java, wereforced from their homes members of the majority Sunni attacked them for so-called blasphemy. They continue to struggle in a makeshift camp in a sports stadium.

In 2006, President Yudhoyono issued a regulation on building houses of worship that makes it extremely difficult for religious minorities to construct their buildings. He signed a law that allows the listing of only six religions on Indonesian ID cards, basically discriminating against more than 350 other small religions. In 2009, Yudhoyono sent his cabinet members to defend the blasphemy law when it was challenged at the Constitutional Court. They mobilized Muslim militias to harass the petitioners and their lawyers. In April 2010, the Constitutional Court upheld the law, which provides criminal penalties for those who express religious beliefs that deviate from the six officially-recognized religions. The court said it is lawful to restrict minority beliefs because it allows for the “maintenance of public order.” In 2008, Yudhoyono issued an anti-Ahmadiyah decree, threatening to five years jail term for anyone who “propagates” the group’s teachings.

An ad hoc tribunal to investigate and prosecute the 1997-98 the disappearance of human rights activists has yet to be established, though it has been approved by the legislature. Yudhoyono's own coordinating minister for political, legal, and security affairs and Attorney General have rejected the official human rights commission's findings that the government's anti-Communist purges of 1965 and 1966 - which included mass killings of up to one million people, enslavement, torture, rape, and enforced disappearance - constituted a crime against humanity. The truth commission and human rights courts authorized by the 2006 law on Aceh have yet to be established. There has been no accountability for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Indonesian forces in Timor-Leste, where as many as 183,000 were killed, or West Papua, where an estimated 100,000 have died. 

On taking office, President Yudhoyono declared that solving the September 2004 murder of Munir Said Thalib, Indonesia’s best known human rights activist, would be a test of "whether Indonesia had changed." The President and Indonesia have failed the test.  He has refused to release the report of the fact-finding team he set up early in his Presidency. The murder involved the national intelligence agency and serving and former military officers; none of them have been brought to justice.

see alsoHuman Rights Watch, In Religions Name Abuses against Religious Minorities in Indonesia

East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN), Human Rights & Justice page

Amnesty International: Victims of the Aceh conflict still waiting for truth, justice and reparation 

Human Rights Watch Indonesia: Civilian Courts Should Try Abusive Soldiers

United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, 2013 annual report 

US Department of State: Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2012 - Indonesia

---

Petisi kepada Rabbi Arthur Schneier

SBY bukan “World Statesman” (Negarawan Dunia) – Batalkan Penghargaan untuk Presiden Indonesia: Seruan kepada Appeal of Conscience Foundation untuk membatalkan penganugerahan World Statesman Award.

Petisi oleh: East Timor and Indonesia Action Network

Ketika Presiden Yudhoyon pertama kali menjabat, ia berjanji bahwa pemerintahannya akan memajukan hak-hak asasi manusia dan meningkatkan toleransi. Sembilan tahun kemudian, tidak ada pertanggungjawaban atas pelanggaran hak-hak asasi di masa lalu; intoleransi agama malah meningkat. 

Kekuatan bersenjata Indonesia menjadi semakin sewenang-wenang di Papua. Polisi dan tentara yang melakukan pelanggaran hak-hak asasi manusia jarang sekali harus mempertanggungjawabkan perbuatannya. Pelanggaran berat hak-hak asasi manusia yang dilakukan oleh anggota militer diadili di pengadilan militer dimana tentara pada umumnya mendapat hukuman yang sangat ringan.

Catatan ini membuat Presiden Yudhoyono tidak pantas mendapat anugerah dari sebuah organisasi yang mendukung toleransi agama dan penegakan hak-hak asasi manusia.

Lihat selengkapnya disini: http://www.etan.org/action/action2/sby_award.htm

Sebuah aksi unjuk rasa (demonstrasi) akan diadakan pada tanggal 30 Mei di New York City jika pemberian penghargaan ini tidak dibatalkan. Lebih lanjut, silahkan kontak: etan@etan.org.

Kepada Yth.

Rabbi Arthur Schneier, President, Appeal to Conscience Foundation

Seruan kepada Conscience Foundation untuk membatalkan penganugerahan World Statesman Award

Kami, yang bertandatangan di bawah ini menyerukan kepada Appeal to Conscience Foundation (selanjutnya A of C Foundation)  untuk membatalkan pemberian penghargaan World Statesman Awardkepada Presiden Indonesia President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. Pemberian penghargaan ini mengguncangkan hati nurani (conscience) kami. Pada tanggal 6 Mei di Jakarta, sebuah koalisi korban-korban diskriminasi agama dan kelompok-kelompok hak-hak asasi manusia di Indonesia telah menyerukan kepada A of C Foundation untuk membatalkan rencananya memberikan penghargaan ini. Kami mendukung seruan mereka.

A of C Foundation menyebutkan bahwa ia berjuang “untuk kebebasan beragama dan hak-hak asasi manusia di seluruh dunia” dan “memajukan perdamaian, toleransi dan penyelesaian konflik etnik.”

Sangatlah disayangkan bahwa A of C Foundation telah terburu-buru memberikan penghargaan ini tanpa sebelumnya menyelidiki keadaan di dalam negeri Indonesia untuk melihat apakah penerimanya sungguh-sungguh layak untuk mendapatkan penghargaan.

Kekerasan atas nama agama terus berlanjut di Indonesia, pemerintahnya berdiam diri, dan impunitas menjadi kebijakan resmi. Memberikan World Statesman Award kepada Presiden Yudhoyono sama dengan merendahkan martabat A of C Foundation dan mengolok-olok penerima-penerima lainnya.

Di bawah kepemimpinan Presiden Yudhoyono, intolerasni agama di Indonesia meningkat dengan pesat. Rumah-rumah ibadah diserang dan para pengikut agama-agama minoritas menghadapi diskriminasi, penyerangan, dan banyak hal yang lebih buruk lagi. Polisi dan pejabat-pejabat publik seringkali tidak mau menghadapi pihak-pihak penyerang. Seringkali mereka justru memihak para penyerang, dan menggunakan jabatan-jabatan mereka untuk menyebarkan fanatisme dan melakukan diskriminasi. 

Presiden Yudhoyono telah menciptakan infrastruktur hukum yang diskriminatif di Indonesia. Dia telah mengeluarkan berbagai aturan yang diskriminatif, mempertahankan UU tentang penodaan  agama di Mahkamah Konstitusional, dan membuat peraturan yang memberikan hukuman selama lima tahun penjara kepada siapa saja yang menyebarkan ajaran Ahmadiyah.

Dalam beberapa tahun belakangan ini, konflik dan penindasan telah meningkat di Papua Barat, dimana penduduk aslinya menghadapi diskriminasi di tanah mereka sendiri. Pada akhir bulan April, setidaknya terdapat 40 orang tahanan politik di Papua.

Di bawah kepemimpinan Presiden Yudhoyono, impunitas terus berlanjut bagi kejahatan-kejahatan terhadap kemanusiaan di masa lalu. Polisi dan militer seringkali bertindak dengan tanpa tanggungjawab di seluruh negeri kepulauan ini.

Dengan segala hormat,

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US Religious Freedom Commission calls for Indonesia military reform

The  United States Commission on International Religious Freedom has just released its annual report. The commission maintains Indonesia on its Watch List (the Indonesia chapter begins on page 255 of the PDF), citing governmental restrictions and violence against some religious minorities, including concerns

about new government decrees that are used to severely restrict, and in some provinces even ban, the activities of the Ahmadiyya community; the forced closures and vandalism of places of worship belonging to Christian, Hindu, and Ahmadiyya groups in some localities; the growth and political influence of religious extremists; the deepening sectarian divisions in Papua due to human rights abuses perpetuated by the military and police; and the harassment and arrest of individuals considered deviant under Indonesian law. USCIRF policy recommendations include urging the Obama administration to deal with pressing social, political, and economic concerns by supporting government offices, religious groups, and civil society organizations in Indonesia working to promote religious freedom, counter extremism, teach tolerance and human rights, pursue legal reform, and build interfaith alliances.

The commission in its recommendations cites the need for reform of the Indonesian military and the need to deny assistance and visas to "any police or military unit or security agency personnel found to have engaged in violations of human rights." It does not name Kopassus explicitly. It calls for the removal from conflict areas of officers indicted in East Timor. It stresses the police role in counter-terrorism, but highlights that the U.S. trained "counter-terrorism unit Detachment 88 ha[s] exacerbated existing sectarian tensions in Sulawesi. Local religious leaders claim that Detachment 88’s harsh tactics increased sympathy for extremists in Central Sulawesi and attracted religious militants from other regions. For example, in April, 2008 police shot and killed Madi, a sect leader involved in a 2005 clash with police." (page 257)

From the reports recommendations (page 266)

In addition, as part of U.S.-Indonesian counter-terrorism cooperation, the U.S. should ensure that any future ties with the Indonesian military and police should include, as priorities:

 reform of the Indonesian military, including transfer to civilian control, training in international human rights standards, technical assistance in military law and tribunals;

 transfer or removal from Papua, the Malukus, or Central Sulawesi any security, police, and militia personnel indicted for activities related to serious human rights abuses and war crimes by the UN's Serious Crimes Investigation Unit (SCIU) and the Ad Hoc Human Rights Court for East Timor in Jakarta;

 dedicated funds for training Indonesian police in counter-terrorism techniques and protecting human rights in areas of sectarian conflict, including fellowships to the International Law Enforcement Academy (ILEA) in Bangkok, Thailand and participation in UN Police training programs (UNPOL); and

 denial of U.S. assistance, training, or visas for any police or military unit or security agency personnel found to have engaged in violations of human rights.