Indonesia to probe forced church closures - report

Indonesia's human rights commission will investigate a report by Christians accusing officials and Muslim radicals of closing, damaging or burning churches, a newspaper reported on Saturday.

The Communion of Indonesian Churches and the Indonesian Bishops Conference filed the complaint with the National Commission on Human Rights on Friday, the English-language Jakarta Post reported.

The church organisations said among those responsible for the forcible closure of 108 churches, many of them in West Java province, were local officials and members of Muslim radical groups such as the Islamic Defenders Front and the Anti-Apostasy Alliance, the newspaper said.

In some cases Muslim radicals also attacked and burned churches, according to the report.

"I am afraid the violence will destroy Indonesia's image internationally because we are unable to protect human rights," Yoseph Adi Prasetyo, a member of the rights commission, was quoted by the Post as saying.

Officials have argued that places of worship have been closed because the buildings were not authorised to be used as churches.

Under a national decree, a house of worship for any religion can be built if it is approved by at least 60 surrounding residents and the congregation has at least 90 members.

Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim country. The vast majority of Muslims in the country of 220 million are moderate, but there is an increasingly active militant minority.

About 10 percent of Indonesia's population is Christian and religious tensions are usually restricted to small pockets in the huge archipelago of 17,000 islands.