Police Demolish Church House in Indonesia – July 23, 2010

Public order personnel supported Bogor police officers who demolished a house where a church regularly met in a village in West Java, Indonesia this week.

Clashes broke out with church members and others as police tore down the Pentecostal Church building and officers arrested 10 people south of Jakarta.  

Dozens of people tried to stop Bogor police from demolishing the building as rumors of the impending destruction had spread far beyond the area. Church members had been guarding the building since the early morning the day it was to be demolished, but a senior police official told The Jakarta Post that he suspected many of the demonstrators were from outside the area.

 Apparently officials were forced to destroy the building because it lacked a use permit.  The permit was for a home, but it was used as a place of worship according to officials.   Reports were that police succumbed to the pressure of the Muslim group.

Area residents, including non-Christians, had accepted the presence of the church and local people had no objections to the church and there had never been any problems with its presence.

The church met without incident until the emergence in 2008 of an opposition group calling itself the Forum of the Muslim Brotherhood. This group worked persistently to have the church eliminated, and three months ago its members went to  offices to object to its presence.  

“Hundreds of people were blocking the way and prepared to fight when the house of worship was demolished,” he said, asserting that officers were able to calm emotions and forestall further violence. “We worked to keep the hundreds from being drawn in to fighting against officials.”  

More than 200 people attended the church which has existed since 2006.  Many of the members work in  the nearby  garbage dump and now have nowhere to attend.  

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