Indonesia: Ministry yet to receive US Congress letter: Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa

Ahmadiyya Times Editor's Note -- A total of 28 lawmakers have written to President Yudhoyono and Ahmadiyya Times has obtained copies of the letters sent by the US lawmaker. The first letter is signed collectively by 27 lawmakers and the 28th letter is written separately. 

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | Int'l Desk
Source/Credit: The Jakarta Post | National
By TJP | Adianto P Simamora | March 17, 2011

Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said Thursday he had not received any letter from US lawmakers demanding President Yudhoyono revoke provincial bylaws that ban the activities of Ahmadiyah.

“I myself have not seen the letter. I need to confirm it,” he told reporters at the presidential palace on Thursday.

The East Java administration issued a bylaw on Feb. 28 banning the Ahmadiyah sect, and West Java authorities followed suit on March 3.


Twenty-seven members of the US Congress have sent a letter to Yudhoyono to revoke government regulations that discriminate against the Ahmadiyah sect and religious minorities. In the letter dated March 15, the Congressmen expressed their “deep concern” on decrees issued by provincial authorities, including East and West Java governors banning Ahmadiyah from practicing its religion publicly.

Separately, Human Rights Watch in a press release asked President Yudhoyono to void the decrees issued by the two provinces.

“Indonesian national and provincial authorities risk being complicit in anti-Ahmadiyah violence by stripping this religious community of their basic rights,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch.

“These decrees place officials on the side of militants who increasingly have been carrying out attacks on Ahmadiyah.”

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