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Jakarta Buddha Bar Protests Scare Off Witness
Ulma Haryanto | August 05, 2010

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Jakarta. A witness has refused to testify in the Buddha Bar trial on Wednesday, fearing mounting protests by enraged opponents.

“Judging from previous incidents, we decided not to present our expert witness to the court because the witness was concerned about safety,” Kurnia Girsang, counsel for the Buddha Bar, told the Jakarta Globe.

Kurnia said neither the Central Jakarta District Court nor the police could guarantee the safety of the expert witness, whom he refused to identify.

“We know that last time, people got harsh. There was also the demonstration last week. The police are currently processing our complaint,” Kurnia said.

The bar’s owner, Nireta Vista Creative, is being sued by the Anti-Buddha Bar Forum (FABB) for alleged blasphemy and violation of business rules mandating respect of state-sanctioned religions.

The FABB slammed the bar’s use of Buddha’s name and Buddhist decorations.

On July 21, one of the defendant’s witnesses, Budiman Sudharma, was threatened by an angry mob from the Betawi Brotherhood Forum (FBR) and Red and White Troops (Laskar Merah Putih). Budiman, a Buddhist, testified that three Buddhist organizations had given the night club their stamp of approval.

A week later, around 300 FABB members protested outside the Buddha Bar on Jalan Teuku Umar, demanding that the club be shut down. Nireta Vista filed vandalism charges against protest organizers, identified as Yongky and Soenarjo.

However, FABB legal representative Sugianto Sulaiman said on Wednesday that the police have not summoned them regarding the complaint. “The police were there [during the protest]. If one of us really vandalized the place, then they should have arrested us,” he said.

Romo Sumedho of the Indonesian Theravada Buddhist Assembly said the protest could have spun out of control if authorities had not shut down the bar temporarily. “We had six buses of protesters waiting for our signal. I even confiscated around 150 molotov cocktails from the people,” Romo said. 

The court’s verdict is set to be delivered two weeks after Aug. 18, which is the deadline for both parties to submit their concluding arguments.