T

he government has denied making any promises to the displaced Shia community from Sampang, Madura, that they would return home soon.

Speaking after a Cabinet meeting at the State Palace, Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Djoko Suyanto denied that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had promised the ill-fated Shiites that they would be able to return to their home villages by the end of July, in time for Idul Fitri.

'€œWho said the government guaranteed it? Just stick to what I said during a press conference,'€ Djoko told The Jakarta Post. He was referring to a press conference at the President'€™s office on Monday.

In the conference, Djoko said the government carried out reconciliation processes to mediate the Shiite followers and the conflicting Sunni communities. He also said that the displaced Shiites would have to be permanently relocated to other places in Madura should the reconciliation processes fail and the resistance of locals surrounding the Shiites'€™ home villages persist.

Djoko said that the government'€™s decision to endorse the option to permanently relocate the Shiites had been the result of a meeting between Yudhoyono and five of the displaced Shiites at the President'€™s private residence in Cikeas, West Java, on Sunday night. The minister said he attended the meeting, which was closed to the media.

The claim that the President had made such a promise was made by the Indonesian Ahlul Bait (ABI), the umbrella organization for Shiites in Indonesia, during a press conference on Tuesday.

In the conference, ABI secretary general Ahmad Hidayat said that the President had promised the Shiites that they could return home by the end of July to be able celebrate Idul Fitri with their family members at their home villages in Nangkernang and Blu'€™uran.

Djoko insisted the President had made such a promise. When asked if the Shiites would eventually celebrate Idul Fitri in their home villages or at the modest apartment in Sidoarjo, East Java, where they were temporarily housed, Djoko only said, '€œDidn'€™t you remember the government'€™s options I delivered in the press conference?'€

Contacted on Thursday, Ahmad Hidayat admitted that Yudhoyono had never made a guarantee that the Shiites could return home by Idul Fitri, even though he admitted that the five cyclists had conveyed their wishes to be able to return home before Yudhoyono. '€œThe President promised that the government would try to help return the refuges home. He also said that he would be happy if the refugees could celebrate Idul Fitri in their home villages,'€
Hidayat, who had also been present in the Cikeas meeting, told the Post.

He refused to comment over the possibility that the Shia refugees could eventually fail to return to their home villages forever, given the government'€™s option to permanently relocate them to other places in Madura. '€œNext week, I will fly to Surabaya [the provincial capital of East Java] to meet with the government-sanctioned reconciliation team led by Sunan Ampel Islamic State Institute [IAIN] rector Abdul A'€™la. We will talk about the further steps we would take toward this reconciliation,'€ he said.

More than 200 displaced Sampang'€™s Shia followers are currently living in temporary shelter in Sidoarjo, East Java.