Catholics Urge Human Rights Commission to Protect Religious Minorities

October 6, 2004

Source: AsiaNews

http://www.asianews.it/view.php?l=en&art=1621

On October 6, 2004 AsiaNews reported, "Indonesia’s Catholics do not feel safe and for this reason Jakarta’s Catholic Community Forum is sending today an official letter to the country’s National Human Rights Commission calling on it and the government to 'protect religious minorities in Indonesia.' Addressed to the Commission’s chairman, Abdul Hakim Garuda Nusantara SH, the appeal follows last Sunday’s attack against the St. Bernadette Parish, ostensibly for using a hall in the Cileduk’s Sang Timur School. Armed Islamic fundamentalists forced the Sisters of the Child Jesus, who run the school, to close it down. The fundamentalists accuse parishioners of proselytising because they have been using the hall as a temporary church for the past ten years. But the parishioners had little choice since for the past 12 years local authorities have not granted them the necessary permit to build a permanent church in the area."