August 15, 2010 - 8:29PM

AFP

Hundreds of Indonesians have held a prayer vigil in Jakarta urging
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to stop attacks by radical Islamists
on Christian churches.

Carrying several Indonesian flags at half-mast, the group comprising
mostly Christians prayed and sang hymns.

"The president and the government have violated constitutional rights of
minority groups to freely practise their religion," rally coordinator
Judianto Simanjuntak told AFP on Sunday.

"They yielded to pressure by the Muslim groups and allowed churches to
be closed and attacks to continue. We ask the president to be
responsible and guarantee religious freedom," he said.

Indonesian rights group Setara Institute for Democracy and Peace in July
said there were 28 cases of religious freedom violations from January to
July, up from 17 for the whole of 2008 and 18 in 2009.

The violations - mostly by radical Muslim groups - included forced
closure of churches and attacks such as torching and damaging churches,
it said.

Human Rights Watch early this month called on Yudhoyono to repeal laws
that it says have given extremists from the dominant religious group the
legal space to launch violent attacks on people of other faiths and sects.

Indonesia's constitution explicitly guarantees freedom of religion and
the country of about 240 million people, 80 per cent of whom are Muslim,
has ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

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