From: Theophilus Bela
Sent: Tuesday, May 14, 2013 3:12 AM
To: [email protected] ; [email protected] ;
[email protected] ; [email protected] ;
[email protected] ; Dr.Kirsten Schulze Deutschland ;
Theodora Trisnawati JFCC ; [email protected] ; [email protected] ;
[email protected] ; [email protected] ; [email protected]
; [email protected] ; [email protected] ; Jakarta Globe ; [email protected]
; [email protected] ; [email protected] ; [email protected] ;
[email protected] ; [email protected] ; [email protected] ;
Michael Lenz KNA Deutschland ; [email protected] ;
[email protected] ; E. Schouten Handelsblaad ; [email protected] ;
Katie Hamann Radio Australia ; [email protected] ; [email protected] ;
[email protected] ; [email protected] ; [email protected] ;
[email protected] ; [email protected] ;
[email protected] ; [email protected] ; Melbourne Graeme Lyall AM ;
[email protected] ; [email protected] ; [email protected] ;
Sunny Swedia ; Mathias Hariyadi ; [email protected] ; Pastor Dr. Jochen
Motte Deutschland ; Deutschland EKD ; Rev. Dr. Robinson Butarbutar VEM
Deutschland ; Paul Dobbyn Journalist Brisbane ; Paul Dobbyn Journalist Brisbane
; Rev. Professor James Haire Brisbane
Subject: Protest in front of US Embassy, Jakarta against an Award for
Indonesian President
My dear US American friends,
could you do something to ask the US Foundation not to give the award to
Indonesian President Yudhoyono, because he fails to protect our churches and
the Muslim minority groups Ahmadyahs and the Syiahs . Yudhoyono himself had
admitted that he failed to protect the minorities in our country . Recently a
Christian church was demolished by local authorities just in front of
Yudhoyono's eyes and that was in Bekasi, a suburb of the capital city of
Jakarta . Until early this month I have counted 28 cases of attacks on
Christian churches or Christian institutions in the country in this year and
now I give you again the figure of attacks on churches of the previous years .
Year number of attacks on Churches
2012 76
2011 64
2010 47
2009 8
2008 40
2007 100
The figures show clearly that Yudhoyono fails to protect Christian minority in
Indonesia .
Please read a report in your paper International Herald Tribune of today or
maybe tomorrow, whose reporter made an interview with me about the topics
yesterday . Or please look at www.global.nytimes.com
Once again I beg for your help to stop the US Foundation giving award to
Yudhoyono, who does not deserve for it .
Thank you very much for your kind attention and help
warmest greetings from Indonesia
Theophilus Bela
President of Human Rights NGO for Religious Freedom "Christian Forum" and
Secretary General of Indonesian Committee of Religions for Peace (an interfaith
NGO)
Facebook Theophilus Bela
----- Pesan yang Diteruskan -----
Dari: elga sarapung <[email protected]>
Kepada: "[email protected]"
<[email protected]>; FGD-1 interfidei
<[email protected]>; demos indonesia
<[email protected]>
Dikirim: Selasa, 14 Mei 2013 4:40
Judul: [jejaringantariman-indonesia] Fw: Protes di US Embassy
Fyi:
Indonesia's Christians question tolerance award for president
Published 11 May 2013 | World Watch Monitor
Email Print
More Sharing ServicesShare
Protesters march to the US Embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia, on 6 May
According to the Appeal of Conscience Foundation, Indonesia President Susilo
Bambang Yudhoyono is a world statesman who promotes religious tolerance.
According to the Clergy Forum of Jakarta, Banten and West Java in Indonesia,
Yudhoyono turns a blind eye to oppression of minority religions in his own
country.
The forum on Monday led a small march of about 50 people to the U.S. embassy in
Jakarta to deliver a letter protesting the foundation's decision to give its
2013 World Statesman Award to Yudhoyono.
"He is the president of intolerance," Rev. Palti Panjaitan, of Batak Christian
Protestant Filadelfia church, told World Watch Monitor.
He and the group left without finding anyone at the embassy to take the letter.
The New York-based Appeal of Conscience Foundation, formed in 1965, calls
itself an "interfaith coalition of business and religious leaders promotes
peace, tolerance and ethnic conflict resolution." It's annual World Statesman
Award has been bestowed upon the likes of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen
Harper; South Korean President Lee Myung-bak; French President Nicolas Sarkozy;
and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
Clergy Forum Coordinator, Rev. Erwin Marbun, said he wonders just what criteria
the foundation used to select Yudhoyono, or "SBY," as the president is widely
called. Christian churches in Indonesia have been bulldozed, and minority
Mulsims have been attacked by mobs – evidence of what the Agence France-Presse
news service this week characterized as "religious intolerance sweeping the
country."
"In fact, President SBY did not obey the law," Marbun told World Watch Monitor.
"He missed in law enforcement in Indonesia. Look at the closure of places of
worship in Indonesia as happened at GKI Yasmin, HKBP Filadelfia, the Shia in
Sampang who can not return home till today, and the Ahmadiyah who are terrified
by the violence of a group of people."
In power since 2004, the Yudhoyono government in 2006 issued regulations
requiring religious groups that want to build a worship building to obtain
signatures from at least 60 neighboring people belonging to different
religions. They also require the groups to obtain permission from the local
religious-affairs office.
The GKI Yasmin church, in Bogor west of Jakarta, has waged a years-long battle
with local officials who have closed the church, despite subsequent federal
orders that it be reopened. The HKBP Filadefia church, in nearby Bekasi, has
been holding services in the street while going through a similar ordeal.
During Christmas Eve services at HKBP Filadefia, a crowd hurled eggs and cow
dung at Panjaitan. On May 2, police questioned him a second time in connection
with an assault case that arose when Palti confronted the leader of the crowd.
An HKBP-affiliated church in the suburbs of Jakarta was bulldozed in March by
municipal crews under orders from local authorities. Across the Indonesian
province of Aceh, 17 churches were closed in May 2012.
Christians represent at least 14 percent of the overwhelmingly Mulsim country,
though the share may be higher because not all Christian churches affiliate
with national organizations. Open Doors International, a worldwide ministry to
Christians living under pressure for their beliefs, says the principal source
of pressure upon Christians is not the government, but militant Islamic groups.
And Christians are not the only ones to feel pressure from hardline elements of
the Sunni majority.
In August, a mob of about 500 Sunnis drove minority Shia from their homes in
near Sampang, on the eastern end of the island of Java. Two people were killed.
On Monday on the western end of the island, hundreds of Islamic hardliners
ransacked a community of minority Ahmadiyah Muslims.
"Therefore, we ask that the Appeal of Conscience Foundation to reconsider the
plan for the sake of humanity, justice and peace in the world," Marbun said.
The small protest march to the U.S. Embassy on Monday included representatives
of GKI Yasmin, HKBP Filadelphia, and Shia and Ahmadiyah communities.
An Indonesian organization called the Human Rights Working Group also
criticized the foundation's selection of Yudhoyono for the award.
"The president has to date never called on his officials to take firm action
against perpetrators of intolerance who have clearly violated the
Constitution," the group's deputy director, Muhammad Choirul Anam, was quoted
as saying in the Jakarta Globe.
In announcing the recipient of its 2013 World Statesman Award, the Appeal of
Conscience Foundation did not specify its reasons for selecting Yudhoyono. In
bestowing the award upon Harper in 2012, the foundation said the award goes to
a "leader who has helped advance freedom, democracy, human rights and peace
globally."
The foundation, created in 1965 by Rabbi Arthur Schneier, "believes that
freedom, democracy and human rights are the fundamental values that give
nations of the world their best hope for peace, security and shared prosperity."
A Yudhoyono spokesman issued a statement Monday that the episodes of sectarian
conflict are only part of the story.
"The intolerance cases should not blind the eyes of the commentators from
seeing the many progresses in building Indonesian values under President SBY,"
Teuku Faizasyah is quoted as saying in the Globe.
The Foundation has scheduled a May 30 ceremony to formally present the award to
Yudhoyono.
Source: World Watch Monitor
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
