INDONESIA & EAST TIMOR When Will the Commission Take Action...?
Report of the Special Rapporteur on Religious Intolerance -
Mr Abelfattah Amor (E/CN.4/1995/91)
In a communication dated 20 October 1994, the Special Rapporteur
transmitted the following information to the Government of Indonesia:
According to information received, followers of the Bahai faith have
continued to suffer grave violations of the right to freedom of religion. The
situation of the Bahai community, is said not to have improved. Jehovahs
Witnesses are also reported to have suffered a ban.
Furthermore, the cases of religious intolerance summarized below have been
brought to the attention of the Special rapporteur:
- In June 1992, two students, Bambab Nahya Nirbita and Ambar Widi Atmoko, were reportedly sentenced to two and a half years in prison. They are said to have been arrested following complaints lodged by a certain persons who accused them of offending the Islamic religion during a sketch they performed in late April 1992.
- In early January 1994, two young men, Djoni Purwoto and Sugiri Cahyono, were reportedly sentenced to four years imprisonment respectively, for blasphemy. They were accused of offending Islamic religion during a play performed at Salatiga in Central Java.
The Special Rapporteur has also been informed that the 1975 Marriage Act prohibits registry offices from registering marriages of persons not belonging to one of the five known religions (Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Catholicism, Protestantism). (p49)
