3 Churches Closed in Indonesia; Christian Group Pledges Legal Aid

JAKARTA, INDONESIA — 

Authorities on Indonesia's Sumatra Island have sealed three churches that officials said lacked necessary permits.

The Communion of Churches in Indonesia (PGI) is dispatching a legal team to assist the churches that were closed September 27. PGI General Secretary Gomar Gultom told VOA's Indonesian Service on Friday that the legal team will take a cultural approach "rather than a legal approach" which takes a long time. "The legal process is our last resort," he added.

The move by officials in the West Kenali village of the Alam Barajo district of Jambi province is the latest push to close churches in a move that followed more than 1,000 closures in more than a decade.

Until then, Indonesia had a reputation for an interpretation of Islam that embraced religious tolerance. But Muslim extremists have been urging the adoption of Islamic law throughout Indonesia, creating religious divides.

A civil court found the Christian governor of the capital, Jakarta, guilty of blasphemy in May 2017. However, in predominantly Christian Papua, the Protestant Communion of Churches in Jayapura wanted a mosque's minaret torn down because it was taller than church steeples in the area.

In Jambi, the city's Civil Service Police (Satpol PP) sealed the three churches — Indonesia Christian Huria HKI (Huria Kristen Indonesia), Indonesian Methodist Church GMI (Gereja Methodist Indonesia) and God's Assemblies Church GSJA (Gereja Sidang Jemaat Allah) — on Thursday morning. According to numerous posts on Facebook, the authorities cited violation of public order and building permit ordinances. Dozens of congregants wept as the churches were closed.

Most worrisome to PGI is that the churches were closed for administrative reasons because religious freedom is guaranteed by Indonesia's constitution. "The local government keeps delaying the process to have the permit, or just reject it without any reasons," said Gultom.

"There are thousands of other places of worship that don't have permits, but continue to operate," he said. "I just can't understand why they won't let us have our churches. I can understand if [the local government] prohibited us from having the permits if we used the buildings for criminal activities, but we used them to praise God."

The head of the National and Political Unity Agency (Kesbangpol) of Jambi, Liphan Pasaribu, told local media that the church closures were the result of a joint decision made Wednesday by several government agencies and the police, as well as the local chapters of Indonesia's top Muslim clerical body, the Ulema Council (MUI), and the Religious Harmony Forum (FKUB).

Jambi District Spokesman Abu Bakar told VOA that the church closures were "just a temporary action due to objections" from the local community upset by the violation of "administrative issues. The Religious Harmony Forum decided to close the churches to avoid unnecessary incidents. We think it's a wise decision to cool down the situation."

He denied that the Islamic Defense Front (FPI), a far-right Islamist group, had urged local authorities to close the churches, and added that if the churches file the necessary documents, permits will be issued within a week.

Aan Anshori, coordinator of the Islamic Anti-Discrimination Network (JIAD) which is an NGO affiliated with Nadhlatul Ulama, Indonesia's largest independent Islamic organization, said that "Islamic teaching seems to fail to understand that other religions, especially Christianity, need to be respected in a democratic country like Indonesia. But there's a strong impression that other religions are considered enemies of Islam. It shows that there is something wrong in Islamic teaching and also in understanding the rights of all citizens, no matter what their religion."

Eva Mazrieva in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report, which originated in VOA's Indonesian Service.

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Melania Trump Forges Ahead as First Lady With Africa Trip

WASHINGTON — 

First lady Melania Trump heads for Africa on her first big solo international trip, aiming to make child well-being the focus of a five-day, four-country tour that will take her to every corner of the vast and impoverished continent.

Departing on Monday, she opens her first-ever visit to Africa on Tuesday in Ghana in the West, followed by stops in Malawi in the South, Kenya in the East and Egypt in the Northeast.

Her first extended turn on the world stage outside the shadow of President Donald Trump could still be complicated by her husband, who has spoken of the continent in impolite and even vulgar terms.

That leaves the first lady with some fence-mending duties.

“She’s got some heavy lifting to do on this trip and it’s a little bit unfair because that’s not what a first lady’s trip should be about,” said Judd Devermont, the Africa program director at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. First ladies usually practice a softer form of diplomacy, showing interest in a host nation’s schools, hospitals and arts programs, and avoiding thornier issues.

Joshua Meservey, a senior Africa policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation, countered by noting the “positive engagements” the president has had with some African heads of state, including President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya, who met with Trump at the White House in late August. Trump also met last week in New York with President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi of Egypt.

Meservey also noted that the U.S. spends considerable amounts on public health and development initiatives in Malawi, which is among the world’s least-developed countries.

“I think the U.S.-Africa relationship is much bigger than the president’s comments, and it’s been going on for decades and decades,” he said. “Frankly, I suspect the vast majority of average Africans have not heard of any of those dust-ups. It’s very much an elite preoccupation.”

“Africans are, generally speaking, very gracious hosts” who will “roll out the red carpet and do their absolute best to be hospitable,” Meservey said.

Days before the first lady was to board a U.S. government airplane for the flight across the Atlantic, Trump declared at the United Nations that he and his wife “love Africa.”

Mrs. Trump’s five days on the continent will feature a mix of visits to hospitals, schools and shelters as she focuses on the well-being of children.

Child welfare is a top issue for Mrs. Trump, the mother of a 12-year-old son. She focuses on the issue in the United States through an initiative she launched this year named “Be Best.” This week’s trip will mark her first extended period promoting the program and its goals abroad, separate from an event she held during a stop in London with the president in July.

A former fashion model born in Slovenia and now a naturalized U.S. citizen, the 48-year-old Mrs. Trump has traveled extensively with the president, including to Saudi Arabia, Israel, Italy, Brussels, France, Japan, South Korea and the United Kingdom. She was in Finland for the president’s July summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin but did not go to Singapore for Trump’s June meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Her only other international foray was brief: a September 2017 day trip to Toronto to join Britain’s Prince Harry at a military athletic competition.

Often seen as a reluctant first lady — she did not fully move into the White House until nearly six months after Trump took office, due to her son’s schooling in New York — Mrs. Trump has kept a low profile in comparison to her immediate predecessors. She was sidelined for several weeks following kidney surgery in May.

Immediate predecessors Hillary Clinton, Laura Bush and Michelle Obama all made multiple trips abroad without their spouses during their administration’s two terms. Such travel has become expected of first ladies, and a similar excursion was viewed as a next step in Mrs. Trump’s evolution in one of the world’s most scrutinized roles.

Former first ladies Clinton, Bush and Obama also made repeat solo trips to Africa.

“The first lady, when she travels to a foreign country, can carry the flag and there’s a great deal she could do to engender good feeling about the United States and I hope she can do that,” Myra Gutin, who studies first ladies at Rider University in New Jersey, said of Mrs. Trump.

President Trump raised ire across Africa earlier this year after his private complaint about the continent’s “s---hole countries” was leaked to journalists.

He later offered a partial denial in public but privately defended his remarks, The Associated Press reported in January. He also didn’t deny the comment when he was asked about it while hosting Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari at the White House in April.

The president further roiled South Africa when he recently claimed on Twitter that the country is seizing farms and that high numbers of farmers are being killed. He pushed “send” on the tweet after watching a Fox News segment about land issues in South Africa. While killings of farmers have been taking place for more than 20 years and are widely seen as part of South Africa’s high crime rate, experts say white farmers have not been the target. Nor are there signs of widespread killings, they said.

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Koreas Began Removing Landmines Along Their Border

Troops and teams of experts from North and South Korea began to remove mines along their heavily fortified border Monday under tension-reducing agreements the two countries reached last month, the South defense ministry said in a statement.

There has been no immediate confirmation from North Korea that its troops had begun to implement the project endorsed in North Korea’s capital Pyongyang by South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean Chairman Kim Jong Un.

According to South’s statement, the two sides agreed to remove all landmines in the so-called Joint Security Area (JSA) within the next 20 days. Work will also be carried out in part of Cheorwon in Gangwon Province, scene of some of the fiercest fighting during the Korean War at the so-called "Arrow Head Hill."

In 2019 troops from both North and South Korea are to search for the bodies of hundreds of soldiers thought to be buried in Cheorwon.

The September agreements also included the removal of guard posts and weapons from the JSA after the de-mining. Troops remaining there would be unarmed.

The JSA is the only area along the 250 kilometer demilitarized zone (DMZ) where troops from both Koreas are face to face. The United Nations Command which overseas the Demilitarized Zone also has troops stationed there.

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Indonesia's Death Toll Expected to Be In Thousands

Rescue teams are searching for survivors on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, which was hit by a 7.5-magnitude earthquake and a tsunami on Friday. Officials said Sunday more than 800 people were killed in the disaster, and they expect that number to rise. Red Cross officials say at least 1.5 million people have been affected. VOA's Zlatica Hoke reports.

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