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Activists are questioning the lack of response from President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to a letter sent by international human rights organizations about the government’s handling of cases of religious discrimination.

According to Indonesia’s Human Rights Working Group, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navanethem Pillay, has sent a letter to the government raising concerns on the handling of cases including the GKI Yasmin church blockade in Bogor, the killings of Ahmadiyah members in Banten, the burning of churches in Klaten and Tegal, both in Central Java, and the destruction of a Buddha statue in North Sumatra.

“On behalf of the UN General Assembly and the Human Rights Council, she [Pillay] sent a letter to question the handling of the cases, calling on the Indonesian government to immediately take action in accordance with international human rights standards. But so far, there is no response from the government,” Akbar Tanjung, the HRWG’s program manager, said in Jakarta during the weekend.

Pillay asked the government to respond to hatred, discrimination, intolerance and violence against minority groups.

According to the Setara Institute for Democracy and Peace, a group that champions pluralism, Yudhoyono delivered 19 speeches in 2011 that encouraged the embrace of tolerance. However, the group said, there was a lack of action to substantiate the words, with intolerance steadily on the rise in Indonesia.

While Indonesia has portrayed itself as champion of human rights and democracy on the international stage, acting as a mediator in high-profile conflict cases in the region, it has undermined its authority with a series of incidents targeting minority groups at home.

Rights activists describe incidents such as the GKI Yasmin standoff and Ahmadiyah attack as discrimination, but the Ministry of Religious Affairs and law enforcement authorities have treated them as either criminal or administrative issues.

In the long-running GKI Yasmin dispute, Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali has said the issue did not fall under his jurisdiction since it involved a building permit, and therefore was the responsibility of the Home Affairs Ministry.

In the violent attack of about 1,500 people on an Ahmadiyah home last year that led to the death of three Ahmadis in Banten, perpetrators were only charged with “participation in a violent attack that resulted in casualties” and sentenced to just a few months in jail.

Other international human rights bodies, such as the Anti-Racial Discrimination Committee, also questioned the so-called Merauke Integrated Food and Energy Estate in Papua, raising concerns that the two-million hectare project would ruin the environment and dislocate Papuan people.

“There is also no response on this issue. All of these lack of responses clearly signal that the government is reluctant to cooperate with the international community,” Akbar said.

Meanwhile, the UN Human Rights Council has announced it will review in July the state of human rights in Indonesia.

The HRWG said the report was likely to be a gloomy one given the country’s weak record of legal enforcement.

“We will see many more incidents of violence against minority groups this year because the government can’t handle the current violations. The government is very weak and not serious. The violence will spread as impunity seems to prevail,” said Rafendi Djamin, HRWG’s executive director.

Setara recorded 244 violations of religious rights in 2011, up from 200 cases in 2010.

Rafendi called on the government to end the apparent impunity enjoyed by particular groups, and to enforce the laws to protect minority groups before the UN review.