REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, MATARAM -- The city administration of Mataram, West Nusa Tenggara, asked Ahmadiyah refugees to be cooperative to help the city administration in its bid to erase the status of the city as a refugee center. The refugees have been offered option to rent low cost apartment units in the city or join the transmigration program to move to other regions in the country, a city administration official Lalu Martawang said here on Friday.

The temporary option is offered in answer to protest by some refugees, who refused to be moved from Lombok as migrants, Martawang said.

The refugees also refused the offer to stay in rented apartment houses in Mataram.

He said the refugees want to stay in Lombok and they refused to rent apartment units in the city. They would rather wait for the government to build special houses for them even if it would take long bureaucratic process.

Martawang said the option is only for temporary until the special houses are built. He said the city administration wants to erase the label of Mataram as a refugee center for the Ahmadiyah people.

"The Ahmadiyah have stayed for 12 years at the Majeluk Transit Dormitory and we think it is long enough. Therefore, they should be cooperative and make an option from the offer," he said.

He said the plan to build special houses is still to be discusses and is still far from coming to a conclusion. The refugees have also been told that the houses are to be built separately that they could mix with the local community and end exclusivity.

Ahmadiyah's faith is opposed in the country. They are not allowed to define themselves as Muslims. A wave of protests and MUI fatwa also demanded that Ahmadiyah be dissolved.

Ikuti Whatsapp Channel Republika