Published Date: October 26, 2010
Bishop Johannes Pujasumarta of Bandung, Secretary General of the Bishops’ Conference of Indonesia, has said that the church is greatly concerned about the growing number of attacks on Christian churches.
“The violence and attacks, against Christian churches of all denominations, has grown in recent years and now in the past several days, especially in Jakarta and in the western part of Java island. We are increasingly concerned about it,” Bishop Pujasumarta told Fides.
“Those responsible are small radical Islamic groups that are sowing panic among our people, especially in the Dioceses of Jakarta, Bandung, and Bogor. They are minority groups, but they should be stopped. The violence also increases the indifference of the civil authorities and police, who shrug off the violence. We demand more attention and protection for the Christian communities and that such acts may not remain unpunished,” says the Bishop.
A documented and detailed report, describing the latest incident, was sent to Fides from the Indonesian Christian Communication Forum (ICCF), an organization that brings together leaders of different Christian denominations, and monitors the situation and violence against Christians in Indonesia.
The report, released this week in a public conference in Jakarta, recalled that last October 17 radical Islamic groups threatened to attack a Catholic church in Karanganyar, Central Java. Days earlier, on October 13, in Sukoharjo, in the same area, 12 militants on motorcycles set fire to a Protestant church.
On October 12, there was another attempt, fortunately with little damage, striking St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Klaten, also in central Java. The Forum recalled that last September a Catholic church was struck in the Province of Pasir, in Borno Indonesia.
According to data provided by the Forum, the attacks against Christian religious buildings have continued to increase since the independence of Indonesia (1945) to date: between 1945 and 1967, two churches were burned; between 1967 and 1969 (after the rise to power of Suharto), 10 were attacked. Between 1969 and 1998, the budget has shot up to 460 attacks (especially after Suharto’s measure regulating the creation of places of worship). But, even after the start of the new era of reforms, the situation does not seem to have improved.
Over the last decade, the Forum has monitored more than 700 attacks, bringing the total number of violent incidents against churches between 1945 and 2010, the dramatic figure of 1,200.
Father Benny Susetyo, Secretary of the Commission for Interreligious Dialogue within the Catholic Bishops’ Conference, in explaining the document, stressed that “the attacks are possible due to the negligence of the police,” noting the significant risk that they “will continue until the violent are guaranteed impunity.”
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