Widodo urges calm after clashes over Aceh church

Agencies/Jakarta Indonesian President Joko Widodo appealed for calm yesterday after one person was killed in violence that followed the burning of a church in Aceh. Hundreds of people set fire to a church in Aceh Singkil district on Tuesday, but the crowd was confronted by another group when they tried to attack a second church, police said.  One person was killed after being shot by an airgun in the ensuing clashes, national police chief Badrodin Haiti said.  “Violence in the name of anything, especially religion, will only damage pluralism,” Joko said, in a statement on the cabinet website. He had ordered authorities to “to take prompt action to stop violence, guarantee the safety of every citizen and establish peace and religious harmony,” he said. A peace agreement between Jakarta and the Free Aceh Movement in 2005 ended a long-running separatist insurgency that claimed more than 15,000 lives, mostly civilians. Earlier on Tuesday, about 750 stick-wielding men razed a church in southern Aceh before clashing with local Christians at a second church. “After burning the church the mob tried to attack another church, but it turned out Christians were already at the ready,” Aceh police chief Husein Hamidi said. “A clash occurred, and one man was killed after being shot in the head with an air rifle.” Four others were wounded by rocks thrown during the confrontation, he added. Police and the military were jointly deployed to restore order and one of the injured was a member of the armed forces, according to Hamidi. The identity of the dead man and the three other injured remained unclear. Hamidi said the clashes followed a demonstration last week by an Islamic youth group demanding the local government tear down a number of churches they claimed had been built illegally without permits. The local authorities agreed to act, but tensions boiled over as angry civilians took matters into their own hands, Hamidi said. The situation has since been brought under control, and 30 people have been detained for questioning, he added. Jakarta-based human rights group Imparsial “condemned the burning of a place of worship and the loss of life,” said director executive Poengky Indarti. “Imparsial is deeply concerned of the presence of intolerant groups (acting) in the name of religion.” Indonesia is the world’s most populous Muslim majority country but significant minorities of Christians, Hindus, Buddhists and Confucians live side by side in the diverse archipelago.