Indonesian mayor won’t reinstate church’s permit

BOGOR, Indonesia — A mayor in West Java who disregarded a Supreme Court ruling to reinstate the building permit of a church in Bogor has now dismissed a recommendation by the National Ombudsman Institute to do so. Bogor Mayor Diani Budiarto rejected the recommendation to reinstate the permit for the Indonesian Christian Church called Yasmin Bogor Church in July, leaving the congregation to worship on a small strip of land as 15 to 20 Muslim demonstrators taunt it.

“The ombudsman’s recommendation is only a suggestion,” the mayor said. Church spokesman Bona Sigalingging said the mayor sent two letters to the church, one in May and one July 9, urging the congregation to cease services on the roadside strip.

In the letter, he claimed that the church created a general annoyance and suggested they worship at the Harmony Building some 500 meters from the sealed church building.

The congregation paid no heed to the letter, Sigalingging said, because the church’s worship on the roadside is a result of the mayor’s own doing.

The vice president of the Setara Institute for Democracy and Peace, Bonar Tigor Naipospos, said there is suspicion that the Bogor city government intends to prevent the existence of the church by all possible means. Budiarto has staged an attack because he has clearly broken the law, he said. “The decision of the Supreme Court is final; why did he revoke the [church] building permit?” Naipospos said. “Similar problems are going to arise, if this is left [unresolved].”