Jubilee Campaign Press Release

For immediate release

February 27th 2003

PERSECUTION OF REV. DAMANIK CONTINUES AS HIS HEALTH SERIOUSLY DETERIORATES

British human rights group, Jubilee Campaign is deeply concerned about the health of Rev. Rinaldy Damanik, the persecuted leader of the Protestant Christian community in Central Sulawesi, Indonesia. Rev. Damanik has been framed by the Indonesian authorities on illegal possession of weapons charges. Rev. Damanik was warded on February 24th at a hospital in Palu, with liver problems. He is currently in quite a weak condition. Rev. Damanik is being watched by two prison guards at the hospital.

On February 24th the Criminal Court in Palu, Central Sulawesi, forced Rev. Damanik to come to court despite his complaint that he was ill and unable to sit through the proceedings. Prosecutors were unsympathetic regarding Rev. Damanik’s health and claimed his condition was not really serious or that he was simply pretending to be ill. One of Rev. Damanik’s lawyers objected at the prosecutor’s comments but his objection was overruled. In complete disregard of his well-being and refusing to take notice of his poor health, the judge ruled that Rev. Damanik had to wait for court proceedings to be finished before he could receive medical treatment. Only after the judge finally adjourned the proceedings was Rev. Damanik taken to the hospital in Palu for medical tests.

On February 10, 2003, at the Criminal Court in Palu, there was a surprise development in the trial of Rev. Damanik when the Minister of Justice and Human Rights, Professor Yusril Mahendra, leveled a new and additional charge that Damanik was a provocateur in the sectarian violence in Central Sulawesi.

Rev. Damanik was arrested in September 2002. The Indonesian police claimed that Rev. Damanik was suspected of illegally possessing weapons and would therefore be detained. However, after much investigation, the police have been unable to produce any hard evidence to suggest that Rev. Damanik was involved in any violence.

Rev. Damanik has made many enemies among the militant Muslims in Sulawesi and the local authorities because of his outspoken criticism of the extremist Islamic group, the Laskar Jihad, and his criticism of the lack of protection given by the Indonesian authorities to Central Sulawesi’s Christians. This has fuelled the attempts by the authorities to persecute the Christian leader. Rev. Damanik has long been an advocate of a peaceful settlement to Muslim-Christian conflict in Central Sulawesi and is a signatory to the Malino 1 peace agreement.

Rev. Damanik’s defense lawyers are refusing to follow the court’s agenda in the trial. Defense lawyers have presented 2 statements rebutting the charges, including a 34-page statement from Rev. Damanik himself. Rev. Damanik has demanded the removal of the new charge of provoking sectarian violence and declared he would boycott the trial if that charge was not dropped.

Shortly after Christmas last year, an attempt was made to kill Rev. Damanik. Food containing rat poison was given to him while he was in police custody in Palu, Central Sulawesi, on December 26. Although he became seriously ill, the attempt to kill him was unsuccessful.

Jubilee Campaign is campaigning for the charges against Rev. Damanik to be dropped. Jubilee is also deeply concerned about the acquittal of Jafar Umar Thalib, the leader of the Laskar Jihad, despite his very clear and strong incitement of violence against Christians.

Jubilee Campaign’s Researcher and Parliamentary Officer, Wilfred Wong, says, ” It is appalling that the Indonesian authorities simply released Jafar Umar Thalib, who ran his own heavily armed private army of Islamic militants and whose group caused the deaths of thousands of Christians, yet have falsely accused Rev. Damanik of illegal arms possession and provoking sectarian violence. Despite the weakness of the evidence against Rev. Damanik, his case has gone to trial in Central Sulawesi, the last place in which he is likely to have a fair trial since the authorities who framed him are based there.”

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For further information you can contact Wilfred Wong on +44 (0)20 7219 5129.

Jubilee Campaign is an interdenominational Christian human rights organisation which has campaigned with over 150 British Parliamentarians on human rights issues worldwide.

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