Jakrta Globe:
Ulma Haryanto
Despite international and domestic appeals to the government to bring to justice those responsible for the killing of Ahmadiyah followers in Cikeusik, Banten province, the violence remains unresolved one year later.
Human rights activists and Ahmadiyah followers marked Monday, a year after the brutal attack, with questions as to why the government had been so slow in processing the case.
Three members of the minority Muslim sect died in the attack, five were badly injured and gruesome footage of the event was uploaded to YouTube.
“This isn’t over. The state is still responsible to resolve the issue,” said Zainal Abidin, deputy director of the Institute for Policy Research and Advocacy (Elsam).
Aside from the 25 Ahmadis displaced from Cikeusik, hundreds more were forced to flee hometowns for fear of their safety.
Indonesia’s Human Rights Working Group said on Sunday that the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navanethem Pillay, had sent a letter to the government raising concerns over its handling of the attack. Read more
The President, the Government and the people of Indonesia, how can you kill your countrymen and women because they don’t share the same beliefs with you. If you are dealing with your own people this way, we the people of the world are not safe from your hands because there are completely different religions that do not share same faiths with Islam. Does it mean Indonesian Muslims will annihilate all of us? They should think about their actions and reflect. Do they know this verse in the Qur’an saying: ‘There is no compulsion in religion’?