Urge the Appeal of Conscience Foundation to withdraw its award to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. He is no statesman.
Sign the petition today: http://s.shr.lc/19349F6
Thank you to all who have signed so far. Please spread the word, and please donate to support ETAN. http://www.etan.org/etan/donate.htm
Thank you.
We, the undersigned urge the Appeal of Conscience Foundation to withdraw its World Statesman Award to Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. This award shocks our conscience.
On May 6 in Jakarta, a coalition of victims of religious discrimination and human rights groups in Indonesia urged the foundation to drop its plan to give the award. We support this call.
The foundation says that it works "on behalf of religious freedom and human rights throughout the world" and "promotes peace, tolerance and ethnic conflict resolution."
It is regrettable that the foundation is so ready to bestow such an award without first seriously examining the situation in the country to see if the recipient truly merits the award.
In Indonesia there is continuing religious violence, governmental inaction, and official impunity. Giving President Yudhoyono the World Statesman Award dishonors to both the foundation and mocks its recipient.
Under President Yudhoyono's leadership, religious intolerance in Indonesia has escalated. Houses of worship have been attacked and the followers of religious minority faiths have faced discrimination, assault and worse. Police and public officials often refuse to stand up to the intolerant bullies. Sometimes they take the side of the attackers, using their office to spread bigotry and enforce discrimination.
President Yudhoyono has established an unprecedented discriminatory legal infrastructure in Indonesia. He has issued a discriminatory regulations, defended the blasphemy law at the Constitutional Court, and promulgated a decree threatening to five years in jail for anyone who "propagates" the Ahmadiyah teaching.
In recent years conflict and repression have escalated in West Papua, where its indigenous people face discrimination in their own land. At the end of April, there were at least 40 Papuan political prisoners.
Under President Yudhoyono leadership, impunity continues for past crimes against humanity and war crimes. Police and military often act with limited accountability throughout the archipelago.
Sign the petition today: http://s.shr.lc/19349F6
Donate to support ETAN. Thank you. http://www.etan.org/etan/donate.htm
Background
Please e-mail us to be notified of details of any protest at the award ceremony in NYC should the award go forward.
The Appeal of Conscience Foundation plans to give the award to President Yudhoyono on May 30 in New York City.
When President Yudhoyono first took office, he promised that his administration would promote human rights and tolerance. Nine years later, the prospects for accountability for past rights violations have receded; religious intolerance has grown. Indonesia's security forces have become increasingly abusive in West Papua. Police and soldiers who violate human rights are rarely held accountable. Serious human rights violations by members of the military are tried in military courts where soldiers, if convicted, receive light sentences.
Recent examples of religious persecution include the March 21 demolition of the HKBP Taman Sari church in Bekasi after an order from the regional government. Four Ahmadiyah places of worship were closed within a month in West Java. Last August, members of the Shia community in Sampang, East Java, were forced from their homes members of the majority Sunni attacked them for so-called blasphemy. They continue to struggle in a makeshift camp in a sports stadium.
In 2006, President Yudhoyono issued a regulation on building houses of worship that makes it extremely difficult for religious minorities to construct their buildings. He signed a law that allows the listing of only six religions on Indonesian ID cards, basically discriminating against more than 350 other small religions. In 2009, Yudhoyono sent his cabinet members to defend the blasphemy law when it was challenged at the Constitutional Court. They mobilized Muslim militias to harass the petitioners and their lawyers. In April 2010, the Constitutional Court upheld the law, which provides criminal penalties for those who express religious beliefs that deviate from the six officially-recognized religions. The court said it is lawful to restrict minority beliefs because it allows for the "maintenance of public order." In 2008, Yudhoyono issued an anti-Ahmadiyah decree, threatening to five years jail term for anyone who "propagates" the group's teachings.
An ad hoc tribunal to investigate and prosecute the 1997-98 the disappearance of human rights activists has yet to be established, though it has been approved by the legislature. Yudhoyono's own coordinating minister for political, legal, and security affairs and Attorney General have rejected the official human rights commission's findings that the government's anti-Communist purges of 1965 and 1966 - which included mass killings of up to one million people, enslavement, torture, rape, and enforced disappearance - constituted a crime against humanity. The truth commission and human rights courts authorized by the 2006 law on Aceh have yet to be established. There has been no accountability for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Indonesian forces in Timor-Leste, where as many as 183,000 were killed, or West Papua, where an estimated 100,000 have died.
On taking office, President Yudhoyono declared that solving the September 2004 murder of Munir Said Thalib, Indonesia's best known human rights activist, would be a test of "whether Indonesia had changed." The President and Indonesia have failed the test. He has refused to release the report of the fact-finding team he set up early in his Presidency. The murder involved the national intelligence agency and serving and former military officers; none of them have been brought to justice.
Demonstration against the award in Jakarta.
see also
Human Rights Watch, In Religions Name Abuses against Religious Minorities in Indonesia
East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN), Human Rights & Justice page
Amnesty International: Victims of the Aceh conflict still waiting for truth, justice and reparation
Human Rights Watch Indonesia: Civilian Courts Should Try Abusive Soldiers
United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, 2013 annual report
US Department of State: Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2012 - Indonesia
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John M. Miller, National Coordinator
East Timor & Indonesia Action Network (ETAN)
Phone: +1-718-596-7668
Mobile phone: +1-917-690-4391
Email: etan@etan.org Skype: john.m.miller
Twitter: @etan009 Website: www.etan.org
2012 Recipient of the Order of Timor (Ordem Timor)
Send a blank e-mail message to info@etan.org to for information on other ETAN electronic resources on East Timor and Indonesia
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