Indonesian Murder Acquittal Angers Rights Groups

JAKARTA, Indonesia, Oct. 8 -- Human rights groups on Sunday criticized Indonesia's Supreme Court for overturning the 14-year prison sentence of a man convicted of killing the country's most prominent activist.

Munir Said Thalib, a human rights lawyer who was threatened in the late 1990s after revealing abuses by the Indonesian military, died of arsenic poisoning in September 2004 on a flight from Jakarta to Amsterdam.

The Supreme Court said last Tuesday that it had seen insufficient evidence to support a decision by a lower tribunal that an off-duty pilot, Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto, had laced Munir's food with poison.

The acquittal has angered many in Indonesia, where the case was seen as a test for a legal system still plagued by corruption after nearly three decades under dictator Suharto. The Suharto government, toppled by a popular uprising in 1998, was known for imprisoning and killing its political opponents.

"The failure to secure a conviction for Munir's murder is a huge blow for human rights protection and the reform process supposedly underway in Indonesia," Brad Adams, Asia director for the New York-based group Human Rights Watch, said in a recent statement.

Munir's wife, Suciwati, who like many Indonesians goes by a single name, maintains that the killing was the result of a conspiracy by military intelligence officials angered by her husband's activism.

She has said the key to Munir's case lies in a trove of telephone taps between a high-ranking Indonesian general and the pilot, which the intelligence service refuses to make public.

That theory was supported by Asmara Nababan, an Indonesian human rights activist and member of the fact-finding team established by the government last year to probe the case. The team concluded that Priyanto had had contact with an agent from Indonesia's intelligence agency, information that never surfaced in court.

Mob Attempted to Demolish Christian Church

Yuli Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post, Bandung

The suppression of religious freedom in this predominantly Muslim nation continues in West Java, where dozens of churches and places of worship have been forcibly closed by Muslim extremists over the past year.

A mob of around 50 people attempted Saturday to demolish a house they claimed was being used illegally by Christians as a place of worship in the hamlet of Cibintinu, Arjasari village, some 20 kilometers south of Bandung.

But police foiled the attempted closure of the church, telling the mob that neither individuals nor organizations were authorized to shut any house of worship.

The incident took place a day before Muslims across the country started the fasting month of Ramadhan.

The abortive attempt received the backing of Muslim hard-liners grouped under the Anti-Apostasy Division (DAP) of the Islamic Ulema Forum (FUUI) led by Suryana Nur Fatwama.

The move began at around 9 a.m. after a meeting at a nearby mosque. The mob then marched to Yayasan Penginjilan Roti Kehidupan church, where they talked to church administrator Ibu Eri.

As she refused to close the church, the crowd tried to start destroying the roof of the building. Around 10 policemen then arrived at the scene and told the mob to leave.

"We ask all of you to be patient. Anybody who tries to touch this building will be arrested," said Bandung Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Suparman who arrived later.

He said no group was allowed under the law to close down or demolish a house of worship except the local authorities.

The mob later dispersed but insisted that they would return to the scene if the church continued its activities.

According to Faidin, a local neighborhood official in charge of spiritual affairs, the church started activities two weeks ago, around one year after being "closed" by local residents.

"It has a congregation of only seven members, including two residents from the local village. The two had just converted to Christianity," Faidin said.

"We are disturbed by their presence and worried if they spread their teachings among local residents who are nearly 100 percent Muslim," he added.

No local Christian leaders were available to respond.

Under the revised joint decree issued earlier this year by Religious Affairs Minister Maftuh Basyuni and Home Minister M. Ma'ruf, the establishment of a house of worship must gain the approval of at least 60 local residents and have a minimum of 90 followers.

Churches in several cities across West Java have been under threat due to the actions of Islamic extremists including the Islam Defenders Front (FPI) and the Alliance of Anti-Apostasy Movement.

The number of churches forcibly closed in West Java alone since September 2004 is reported to be 30. Dozens of other churches were also forced to close in other provinces.

The UK-based human rights watchdog Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) has warned of the increasing trend in church closures in West Java, raising international concern.

Indonesia Executes Three Christians

JAKARTA, Friday, Sept. 22 — The European Union tried to get Indonesia to declare a moratorium on the death penalty, European diplomats and Indonesian officials said, as firing-squad executions loomed for three Christians convicted in connection with anti-Muslim communal violence in 2000 and for three Muslims convicted for their roles in the 2002 Bali bombings.

But the government went ahead on schedule, putting the three Christians to death in Palu, on the island of Sulawesi, shortly after midnight on Friday, the lawyer for the three men told Agence France-Presse. Other news agencies also reported the executions, citing government officials they did not name.

“The European Union, along with many other like-minded countries, opposes the use of the death penalty in all circumstances,” the Finnish Ambassador, Markko Niinioga, wrote in a letter that was delivered Wednesday to Indonesian president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. “The E.U. finds this punishment cruel and inhuman,” he wrote.

Ambassador Niinioka was writing on behalf of the European Union because Finland now holds the union’s rotating presidency. His letter was read to The New York Times on Thursday by a European diplomat, who did so on the condition of anonymity because the letter had not been released publicly. An aide to President Yudhoyono confirmed that it had been received.

Mr. Yudhoyono is considered a leading contender for the Nobel Peace Prize, because of his work in bringing about an end to the separatist war in Aceh, the country’s westernmost province. European diplomats said on Thursday that the executions could hurt his chances, given the strong anti-death-penalty sentiments among European governments.

A senior Indonesian government official, who was granted anonymity in order to learn the government’s response, said on Thursday that despite the letter, there was almost no chance of stopping the execution of the Christians. “We’re going to execute the Bali bombers soon after,” he added, by way of explanation.

In this overwhelmingly Muslim country, the government considers that the risk of political protests would be too great if it executed the Bali bombers and not the Christians.

The trial and conviction of the three Christians — two mechanics and a farmer —was in some manner a culmination of the Muslim-Christian violence that consumed Poso, a town in the province of Central Sulawesi, for eight years.

The condemned men were Fabianus Tibo, 60, Marinus Riwu, 48, and Dominggus da Silva, 42. When they were tried in 2001, no witnesses testified about seeing any of the men actually kill anyone, according to Dave McRae, a specialist in the Poso conflict at the Australian National University who wrote about the case in The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

Mr. McRae, who attended the trial, wrote that the evidence against Mr. Riwu “was very weak,” with the only testimony against him saying that he had instructed other Christians in the use of arrows.

Even so, the three-judge court found that Mr. Tibo was the leader of a Christian militia called the “Red Group,” and that Mr. da Silva was one of his lieutenants.

More than 150 men have been tried in connection with the Poso violence, but only a handful of them were Muslims, the Associated Press reported. None of the other defendants received a sentence more severe than 15 years in prison, according to Mr. McRae.

The executions of the three men were originally scheduled for early August, but they were postponed at the last minute following an appeal by Pope Benedict XVI. After that, the scheduled executions of the Bali bombers was also postponed; with the Muslim holy month of Ramadan beginning on Sunday, it will probably be late October before a new date is set for them.