Komnas HAM Suspects Ban On Ahmadiyya Worship Activities In Sintang Causes Increased Escalation

JAKARTA - The National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) said that there was a mutual agreement between regional officials to ban Ahmadiyah activities in Sintang, West Kalimantan as the background for the increasing escalation that led to the destruction of the Miftahul Huda Mosque.

"So, indeed, the escalation in Sintang has increased somewhat since the signing of the collective agreement," said Komnas HAM Commissioner Beka Ulung Hapsara at a press conference broadcast online on the Indonesian Human Rights Commission's Public Relations YouTube, Monday, September 6.

This collective agreement, he continued, was signed on April 29 and contained a ban on Ahmadiyah activities in Sintang. The regional officials who signed it were the Regent, the Head of the Sintang Kejari, the Dandim, the Head of the Resort Police, and the Head of the Office of the Ministry of Religion.

After the collective agreement was signed, various hate speeches and provocations emerged on social media. "The escalation is increasing not only in the field but also through various social media," said Beka.

Thus, Komnas HAM asked the police not only to process the perpetrators in the field but also the intellectual actors behind the vandalism incident.

"So there are a lot of hate speech, provocations, and teachings of violence on social media," said Beka.

"In this case, we encourage the police not only to process the law on the perpetrators in the field, but also intellectual actors who orchestrate hate speech or calls for violence on social media," he added. As previously reported, incidents of attack and destruction of places of worship and buildings belonging to the Indonesian Ahmadiyah Congregation (JAI) in West Kalimantan. A group of people using stones and bamboo damaged the mosque building located in Balai Gana Village, Temunuk District, Sintang Regency.

For this incident, the West Kalimantan Regional Police and the Sintang Police have arrested 10 perpetrators who are suspected to be related and will be investigated further before being named suspects.