Indonesia was one of 15 countries elected to serve three-year terms on the UN Human Rights Council in late May. The foreign minister, Marty Natalegawa, said that the country's election confirmed the progress that Indonesia has made on human rights and democratisation over the past decade, as well as the consistency with which it has addressed these issues through its foreign policies. However, earlier in the same month the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navanethem Pillay, wrote to Mr Natalegawa to express the organisation's concerns over rising religious violence in Indonesia, and urged the government to accept a visit from its special rapporteur on freedom of religion later this year. In her letter, Ms Pillay drew attention to the plight of the Ahmadiyah community, an Islamic sect viewed as deviant by mainstream Muslims. The Ahmadiyah in Indonesia face violence and constant intimidation by vigilantes, and in February three adherents of the sect were murdered by a mob in West Java. The group also faces illegal bans on its activities imposed by local governments. Ms Pillay further referred to the closure and burning of Christian churches, attacks on Christians and the forced removal of a Buddhist statue in North Sumatra. She said that such incidents were jeopardising the human rights guaranteed in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Indonesia is a signatory.