T

he West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) Ansor Youth Movement (GP Ansor) has urged the provincial administration and stakeholders to come together and resolve the refugee status of the hundreds of displaced Ahmadiyah followers in NTB.

From a humanitarian perspective, GP Ansor says the issue must be resolved to ensure their freedom as Indonesian citizens, whose rights are protected by the 1945 Constitution.

GP Ansor said the NTB administration and the central government neglected the refugees at the Wisma Transito transmigration shelter in Mataram.

“The condition of the refugees at the shelter is alarming. Wisma Transito should not be used as the final place for the Ahmadis. The government has neglected the issue for the past six years. If prolonged, the issue could be a violation of their rights as Indonesian citizens,” NTB GP Ansor legal division coordinator Umar
Ahmad Zeth told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

GP Ansor documented the refugees’ conditions at the shelter while breaking fast at Transito Mosque on Wednesday. A number of NTB Ansor leaders and NTB Legal Aid Institute (LBH) activists spoke with refugees after the tarawih (evening prayer).

According to Umar, the main issue to be resolved is the humanitarian issue. As many as 33 families comprising 138 people at the shelter are living without much hope for the future,
a feeling that deepened when they were no longer recognized as citizens because the administration was reluctant to issue them identity cards.

The refugees have been at the shelter since they were driven from their homes in Ketapang village, Lingsar district, West Lombok, in February 2006.

“Regardless of the claim by a number of groups that the Ahmadiyah group is deviant, the government should resolve the humanitarian issue. Every party must look at the issue from the humanitarian side and not only focus on the differences and treat Indonesian citizens as such,” he said.

Umar added that the government should be able to return the Ahmadi refugees to their place of origin.
The NTB provincial administration and the West Lombok regency administration have so far never directly observed their condition at the shelter.

“Had the administration observed the real conditions directly, they would evaluate what they should do to resolve the issue,” he said.

NTB GP Ansor head Suaeb Qury said the visit and breaking fast with the hundreds of refugees at Wisma Transito was part of efforts to dialog and help resolve the humanitarian issues Ahmadi reguees in NTB were suffering.

“Ansor is a subsidiary of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), whose spirit is to encourage plurality and is against discrimination in the country. We regard the Ahmadiyah refugee issue as a very important issue to address, so every Indonesian citizen can live equally and side by side, as what is enumerated in the 1945 Constitution,” Suaeb said.

According to him, Ansor regards every element of the nation as having the same rights in Indonesia. The claim that Ahmadiyah is a deviant group, he added, was a claim from a particular group, and Ansor considers the claim as baseless.

“As fellow Muslims, we think the Ahmadiyah refugees must be befriended, not shunned, much less isolated. They must be accommodated amid people who look at and regard them negatively. For us, no one has the right to assess certain heretical groups in Indonesia,” Suaeb said.

NTB LBH deputy director Basri Mulyani told the Post that GP Ansor’s efforts could pave the way for other organizations to be more concerned with the humanitarian issues at Wisma Transito.

“If left neglected and without certainty, the refugee issue could become a basic human right violation. The steps taken by Ansor can also be taken by other mass organizations,” Basri said.

Ahmadiyah refugee coordinator Syahidin said, “We are very happy that there are people who still care about us.”

According to Mataram Ahmadiyah cleric Basiruddin, there has not yet been any meaningful development in the Ahmadis’ fate.

“The assets compensation issue in Ketapang has been stalled since January, as have talks with the NTB prosecutor’s office. The West Lombok regency administration said it would form a team to be assigned to the shelter, but they have not arrived yet,” Basiruddin said.

“We are like a people without a government. Actually, we only need status and security assurance, without which the issue would never be resolved,” he said.