Amnesty: Displaced Indonesian Shia must be allowed to return home safely, voluntarily and with dignity

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - Displaced Shia residents from the trouble-plagued East Java island of Madura must be allowed to return home safely, voluntarily and with dignity, Amnesty International demanded on Monday.The activist group called on authorities to meaningfully remedy the violations of the community’s human rights, including through compensation for harm, rehabilitation and guarantees the offenses will not be repeated.The community was forcibly displaced in August last year after an anti-Shia mob attacked its village in Sampang on Madura. Since then, it has been forced to live in two temporary shelters, including one in Sidoarjo, without adequate access to water, housing, sanitary and health services.Josef Roy Benedict, an Amnesty International campaigner for Indonesia, said: “The continued displacement of the community — one year after a deadly attack against them — calls into question government commitments to resolve their situation, and highlights a wider pattern of government failures to address religious intolerance and abuses against minority groups in the country.”Many children in the community were traumatized by the attacks and have stopped attending school. The forced eviction meant that most of the adults, having lost their ability to farm due to a lack of land, are now unable to support themselves. Many adults in the community were tobacco farmers.Five people have been sentenced to prison terms ranging from eight months to four years for acts of violence, maltreatment and manslaughter. A sixth person, who was accused of responsibility for the attack, was acquitted.Amnesty said it was also concerned about allegations that some Shia people still in the village have been forced by Sampang authorities and police to repent and convert to Sunni Islam in order to stay there.Authorities and police said that if they did not convert, Shia people’s safety could not be guaranteed and there homes may be attacked.Indonesia is a signatory to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which requires it to protect and fulfil the right to adequate housing for all its people, including preventing forced evictions by third parties and providing victims with effective relief efforts.Indonesian officials have repeatedly refused to classify the violence in Sampang as religiously motivated, claiming instead that it stemmed from a long-standing dispute between two brothers, one Sunni and one Shia, over a woman.In a meeting in July, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono promised the Shia community members that they could return to their village and get assistance in rebuilding their homes, although that pledge is yet to produce tangible results.The right to freedom of religion is guaranteed in the Indonesian Constitution, but the case highlights growing religious intolerance and abuses against minority groups in the country.In a speech prior to Independence Day on Aug. 17, Yudhoyono said: “It cannot be justified if an individual or a group forces its beliefs onto others.“I want to remind the Indonesian people that the state fully guarantees the existence of individual or minority groups.”Despite repeated assurances by the government, cases of discrimination are becoming more prevalent.Yudhoyono this year received the Appeal of Conscience Foundation’s World Statesman award for tolerance./129