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Navy ships to transport Gafatar members back home
Scores of former members of the Fajar Nusantara Movement (Gafatar) are housed at shelter provided by the Indonesian Military (TNI) in Tanjung Pura, Pontianak, West Kalimantan, on Wednesday
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Scores of former members of the Fajar Nusantara Movement (Gafatar) are housed at shelter provided by the Indonesian Military (TNI) in Tanjung Pura, Pontianak, West Kalimantan, on Wednesday. More than 1,000 former Gafatar members were evacuated by police and TNI on Tuesday after they were forced out of their homes by locals protesting their presence. (Antara/Jessica Helena Wuysang) (Gafatar) are housed at shelter provided by the Indonesian Military (TNI) in Tanjung Pura, Pontianak, West Kalimantan, on Wednesday. More than 1,000 former Gafatar members were evacuated by police and TNI on Tuesday after they were forced out of their homes by locals protesting their presence. (Antara/Jessica Helena Wuysang)
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span class="caption">Scores of former members of the Fajar Nusantara Movement (Gafatar) are housed at shelter provided by the Indonesian Military (TNI) in Tanjung Pura, Pontianak, West Kalimantan, on Wednesday. More than 1,000 former Gafatar members were evacuated by police and TNI on Tuesday after they were forced out of their homes by locals protesting their presence. (Antara/Jessica Helena Wuysang)
The government will deploy three Navy warships to transport former members of the Fajar Nusantara Movement (Gafatar) back to their hometowns in Central Java next week after they were forced out of their homes by residents of Mempawah regency, West Kalimantan amid controversy surrounding the group.
Three warships would transport around 1,500 members of Gafatar to various parts of Central Java, Central Java Police spokesman Sr.Comr Liliek Darmanto said on Wednesday.
The numbers were based on data the police received that included families with children from Yogyakarta and several cities in Central Java, such as Semarang, Surakarta, Sukoharjo, Wonogiri, Klaten and Sragen.
He said that those people were no longer members of Gafatar as they had shown repentance and quit the group.
The warships will arrive in Pontianak, West Kalimantan on Sunday and are scheduled to arrive at Tanjung Emas Port in Semarang next Wednesday.
"We will then transport them to their hometowns by bus," Liliek said, adding that the Central Java Police would coordinate with local administrations and the military in transporting the former members back to their hometowns.
Locals burned down nine houses of former Gafatar members in Moton Panjang, Mempawah regency, forcing more than 1,000 out of their homes and into military shelters in Pontianak.
Social Affairs Minister Khofifah Indar Parawansa said the government would provide accommodations for the former members of the group, which is currently under the government and Indonesian Ulema Coucil's (MUI) radars for its alleged heretical ideology.
"We will take care of them until they return to their homes," she told journalists at the House of Representatives complex on Wednesday.
The ministry will also send an assessment team to Pontianak to identify the needs of the former members of Gafatar.
The assessment aims to determine what drove them into joining the group. Whether it was because of ideology, peer pressure or being made promises, Khofifah said.
Hundreds of people were reported missing to the police following suspicion that they had joined the group. (rin)
