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resident Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has promised Shiites from Sampang, Madura Island, that they will be able to return to their home villages by the end of July, in time for Idul Fitri.

Representatives of the Shia community said Yudhoyono made the pledge during a meeting with five displaced Shiites who cycled to Jakarta to meet with the President to air their grievances.

'€œPresident SBY finally met with five Shiite representatives around 9 p.m. on Sunday. In the meeting, the President promised that all displaced Shiites could return to their home villages in Nangkernang and Blu'€™uran by the end of July,'€ said Ahmad Hidayat, the secretary-general of Indonesian Ahlul
Bait (ABI), the umbrella organization for Shiites in the country. Hidayat spoke in a press briefing on Tuesday attended by the Shia cyclists.

Hidayat said that Yudhoyono made the promise in the meeting also attended by Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Djoko Suyanto, State Secretary Sudi Silalahi and representatives from ABI.

Hidayat added Yudhoyono promised that he would directly be in charge of a reconciliation program involving the majority Sunni community and the East Java administration to find a safe passage home for the 235 Shiites currently staying in public housing in Sidoarjo.

During the meeting, Yudhoyono also pledged to develop infrastructure in the Shia hamlets and to earmark a special budget for a reconstruction project in areas affected by the Sunni-Shia clashes.

ABI religious council head Umar Shahab said that the Shia community deserved a peaceful resolution, as promised by Yudhoyono.

'€œWe have tried many things, from cultural, social, political and personal approaches, to return Shia followers to their home villages because we feel that the East Java provincial administration doesn'€™t have the will to resolve the conflict,'€ he said.

Umar said that Yudhoyono'€™s guarantee was crucial as the local administration appeared to have no intention of returning the Shiites from the low-cost Sidoarjo housing to their home villages.

Other than with Yudhoyono, representatives from the Shia community also met with former vice president and chairman of the Indonesian Mosque Council Jusuf Kalla, former first lady Sinta Nuriyah Wahid and Golkar Party chairman Aburizal Bakrie, to seek support for their repatriation.

'€œWe met with Aburizal Bakrie at his office and he personally said to us that his party would help our cause and push the House of Representatives to protect the Shia community,'€ he said.

An activist who joined the Shia cyclists in their meeting with Yudhoyono said that Aburizal served as a go-between in the meeting.

The Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), a non-governmental organization that has long provided advocacy assistance to the Shia community, said that it was not aware of the Cikeas meeting.