Inhuman acts

Editorial

Inhuman acts

Editorial
August 19, 2010

Emergencies are a time when the best of man – and the very worst – comes out into the open. In southern Punjab, where leaders of the Ahmadi community say relief goods or a place in camps was denied to flood victims from their faith, the worst has been on display. The treatment of Ahmadis as sub-human is a consequence of years of discrimination stemming from that fateful decision in the 1970s to declare them ‘non-Muslim’. The result of the state’s decision to determine what belief people practice, regardless of their own assertions, has been catastrophic. The massacre of Ahmadis we saw earlier this year in Lahore is one outcome of this. The increasingly vicious campaigns they have faced have obviously had an influence on poisoning minds and influencing the kind of disgraceful behaviour we have seen following the floods.

But sadly, this is not the only example of such conduct. Humanitarian workers out in the field report many examples of bias. In some cases aid has been denied to those from specific castes or clans; in other instances the weakest and most vulnerable have been pushed aside. Christians in the Punjab are reported to have complained about discrimination and it is possible other minority communities have faced similar experiences. While most international and all UN organisations are bound by their own charter to ensure equitable distribution of aid, and usually attempt to follow them, local organisations may not have rules that are as stringent. Some reports already speak of groups affiliated to religious parties being behind some of the worst acts of deprivation on the basis of belief.

So, what does this say about us as a people? As a society? Do we even deserve the distinction of calling ourselves civilised human beings? It is true that the government for now has a lot on its plate. But despite this, an effort must be made to investigate the incidents in Muzaffargarh and elsewhere. It seems obvious they could not have taken place without the connivance of local authorities, who must be made to answer for their acts.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 19th, 2010.

URL: http://tribune.com.pk/story/40608/inhuman-acts/

Minorities denied flood relief in Pakistan

Wed. 18 Aug 2010

Pakistan

Minorities denied flood relief in Pakistan

First Published: 23:54 IST(18/8/2010)
Last Updated: 02:38 IST(19/8/2010)Imtiaz Ahmad, Hindustan Times
Karachi, August 18, 2010

Earlier this week, members of Pakistan’s Ahmadiyya community, who were caught up in the raging floods around the Central Punjab town of Muzaffargarh, were not rescued from their homes because rescuers felt that Muslims must be given priority. Ahmadiyyas are ostracized by Pakistan’s mainstream Muslim community who consider them to be non-believers. In 1973, this community was officially declared a minority. Since then the discrimination against them has been severe.

The Ahmadiyyas complained to the government that not only were their community members not rescued but in some instances ejected from relief camps when their identity was disclosed. This has been refuted by the provincial Punjab government but eye witnesses have attested to this.

As the waters recede and people flock to relief camps and look for help, Pakistan’s power politics have come into play whereby chosen areas are being helped at the expense of others which are being completely ignored. Hamir Soomro, a landlord from Shikarpur, one of the most badly affected districts in Sindh, says that his area is not receiving government help, which is instead going to Khairpur, the constituency of the province’s Chief Minister, Qaim Ali Shah.

The UN says that the government suffers from a “image deficit” problem. “In plain words, they don’t trust the ability of the government to deliver,” says Mian Nawaz Sharif, opposition leader.

Earlier this week, Sharif met with Prime Minister Gilani and both agreed to the formation of a “clean commission” - comprising people of integrity, to oversee distribution of funds for for flood relief. The idea did not go down well with President Zardari whose office has blocked the move on grounds that the government is fully in control.

But the UN and donor agencies dont think so. They have pointed out that the government has no relief plan and is also unable to make an estimate of what is needed where. As a result, the situation has turned dire in many neglected or inaccessible areas.

In Kohistan, there are reports the five children died of starvation because help had not arrived.

Members of the Sikh community, who arrived in Gurdwaras in Lahore also complained of government apathy. They said members of their community were abandoned in Khyber-Pakhtoonkhwa and had to arrange rescue for themselves.

Copyright © 2010 HT Media Limited. All Rights Reserved

URL: www.hindustantimes.com/Minorities-denied-flood-...ticle1-588673.aspx

The politics of relief: Aliens in their own land

Pakistan Punjab

The politics of relief: Aliens in their own land

By Abdul Manan
August 18, 2010

500 flood survivors from Ahmadiya community denied shelter, relief goods

MUZAFFARABAD: The government and local clerics refused to shelter around 500 flood-affected families belonging to the Ahmadiya community in South Punjab’s relief camps. Not only that, the government also did not send relief goods to the flood-hit areas belonging to the Ahmadiya community, The Express Tribune has learnt during a visit to the devastated Punjab districts of Muzaffargarh, Dera Ghazi Khan and Rajanpur.

For its part, the government claims that all relief goods are being distributed among survivors without discrimination. And that all survivors have been sheltered in relief camps without distinction. The flood-devastated families from the Ahmadiya community have strongly criticised the government’s “discriminatory attitude” even at a time when the entire country is reeling from the ravages of the worst flooding in living memory.

Of the 500 Ahmadi families, 350 belong to DG Khan, 60 to Muzaffargarh and 65 to Rajanpur district. According to Ahmadiya community leaders, over 2,500 members of their community have been displaced and are now living with their relatives while some of them have left for Rabwah, the community’s headquarters.

Aziz Ahmad Khan, a local leader of flood victims from the Ahmadiya community in DG Khan, told The Express Tribune that all members of his family have complained of discrimination in DG Khan. He said 200 families from Basti Rindan and Basti Sohrani, 60 from Chah Ismaeel Wala, three from Rakh Mor Jangi, 18 from Ghazi Ghat and 12 from Jhakar Imam Shah of Ahmadpur. Khan alleged that 200 families, who have been displaced from Basti Rindan and Basti Sohrani by flooding, took shelter in a state-run school at Jhok Utra but within days the local administration forced them to leave the school. He said the local administration later told them that people from the surrounding areas did not want the Ahmadis in the relief camp. And that the administration could not allow them to stay at the camp as it could create a law and order situation.

“So we left our cattle and other belongings in the area and took refuge in the homes of our community members on higher grounds,” he said, adding that some of them even migrated to Chanabnagar.

Muhammad Iqbal Sohrani, a member of the Ahmadiya community told The Express Tribune that around 40 Ahmadi families who took shelter in a state-run school at Jhakar Imam Shah near Sumandri, some 40 kilometres from DG Khan, have not received any relief either from philanthropists or from the government. He alleged that relief packages were being distributed through local lawmakers who have been told by the district administration that the Ahmadis are not eligible for any support.

Saleem Chandia, another Ahmadiya community member, said that he along with 40 other community members rented a house but after two days their landlord was forced by local clerics to evict them. Chandia said they were offered help by their own community members after wandering for several days in search of shelter.

Mansoor Ahmad, a resident of Muzaffargarh, told The Express Tribune that over 800 members of the Ahmadiya community were displaced from Bait Nasirabad, Masroornagar, Hussainwala and Shahjamal. At least 100 members of the community, from Hussainwala and Masroorabad, were trapped at Shahjamal. He claimed that they had asked the district police officer (DPO) and the district coordination officer (DCO) to provide them a boat or to rescue the trapped people but they did not take notice.

Ahmad claimed that the trapped Ahmadis were rescued by their fellows on a broken boat. He said local clerics have issued an edict that the Ahmadis should not be provided help.

Naseem Ahmad, from Rajanpur, told The Express Tribune that their 500 community members from the areas of Basti Lashari, Basti Allahdad Dareeshak and from Basti Azizabad were displaced. Their houses were washed away and the government and local clerics ignored them. He said that they were not allowed to stay in state-run schools or in camps, therefore the majority of them were living on the rooftops of their inundated houses.

“The Ahmadiya community itself rescued trapped people and delivered relief to them,” community spokesperson Saleem-ul-Din told The Express Tribune by phone.

He said that the community did not want any relief package from the government for its members. However, the government should protect the property and livestock of the Ahmadis.

Hassan Iqbal, Commissioner DG Khan, told The Express Tribune that he would check the situation. He asked the Ahmadis to directly approach him if they face discrimination anywhere in the district. However, DCO Muzaffargarh Farasat Iqbal said that the Ahmadis have not contacted him.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 18th, 2010.

URL: http://tribune.com.pk/story/40435/the-politics-of-relief-aliens-in-their-own-land/

Longing to return home

---The Jakarta Post, Indonesia

Feature - Mon, 03/15/2010 8:58 AM

Longing to return home

Panca Nugraha, The Jakarta Post, Mataram

A number of mothers and children were savoring homemade fruit salad one late afternoon at Wisma Transito (transit house) in Mataram, Lombok.

A group of men sat on the porch of the building, playing games with their children.

All of them actually have homes, friends and families and once worked as farmers, but four years after being evacuated from their village in Ketapang, West Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara (NTB), their old lives seem millions of years away.

For the members of Ahmadiyah, returning to their village remains an impossible dream.

Ahmadiyah community members were evacuated to the transit house — a government-owned building that used to serve as a refuge for migrant workers — on Feb. 4, 2006, and have been living there ever since.

“We were told it was a temporary situation until security was restored in our village. But it turns out we can’t return home even now,” said Syahidin (45), the coordinator of the Ahmadiyah refugees at Wisma Transito.

During their four-year-long evacuation, 12 babies were born, with part of the evacuated congregation choosing to move to other regions outside NTB, leaving only 33 families or 126 people in the transit home.

Some of the babies born in the refuge were even named after the place, like Transiti Mariam Sudikah (3), Transita Nuriyah (2), and Muhamad Iqbal Transito (2).

The 3-by-3 meter makeshift rooms in the refuge are partitioned with curtains made of cloth, pre-used banners and sarongs. Highlighting the limitations and plain existence of the evacuees’ lives.

There are only six bathrooms with barely enough water to satisfy the needs of all families residing there. For cooking, the sect members have built a basic kitchen from used-cement sacks and wood or bamboo to support the back of the building.

Since mid 2008, the NTB social affairs office has stop delivering rice and other food aid to the refugees because social assistance was only made available for two years. They are still struggling to make a living. In the last six months, they had no electricity after they couldn’t afford to pay the bill. Worse, as citizens, they have lost their identities as they do not possess valid identity cards (KTP).

“The cards obtained from Ketapang have expired and our applications for new KTPs has been rejected here. This makes it difficult to obtain certificates for free medical aid for disadvantaged people,” said Sarim Ahmad (40), one of the refugees.

Without KTPs, the refugees have no access to free medical services and student aid (BSM). They had to pay the normal rate for hospital fees for each baby born during that time, and have not yet received allowances for their children’s education.

The BSM scheme normally provides Rp 15,000 per primary school student, Rp 50,000 per secondary school student and Rp 75,000 per high school student a month.

To support their families, some of the members of the sect have taken jobs in the construction industry, others in retail like snack shops. Sarim and 12 other members have been working for several months in Singkong Keju Mataram (Sikemat), a fried-cassava shop with 12 branches in Mataram.

They only earn Rp 12,000 a day, working from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. local time.

“Sometimes we don’t have enough money to buy rice. But fortunately there’s the job at the snack shop, otherwise there would be nobody to turn to,” said Nuraeni (28), another Ahmadiyah evacuee with two children.

“I want to be a policeman,” said Ridho (3), the son of Zuhri and Nuraeni, when asked what he wished to become when he grew up. But who can guarantee Ridho’s dream will come true, when his parents cannot afford to pay for basic health and his education?

— Photos by JP/Panca Nugraha

URL: www.thejakartapost.com/news/2010/03/15/longing-return-home.html

Let us out of this shelter, Ahmadis plead

--- The Jakarta Post, Indonesia

Headlines Thu, 08/06/2009 1:11 PM

Let us out of this shelter, Ahmadis plead

Panca Nugraha, The Jakarta Post, Mataram

Around 140 members of the Jamaah Ahmadiyah sect asked the Mataram municipal administration Wednesday for permission to leave their shelter at the Transito Guest House, where they have been living for the last three-and-a-half years.

Representatives of the minority Islamic sect, branded deviant by mainstream Muslim groups, met with staff from the Mataram mayor’s office to make their request.

“We asked for permission from the administration to allow us live wherever we may in the city, even along riverbanks or in slums,” Syahidin, coordinator of the refugees, said after the 30-minute meeting.

“We’re tired of living at the shelter.”

He added the Ahmadis had made the plea because local authorities had never responded to an earlier request to be allowed to return to their home hamlet of Ketapang, in Gegerung village, West Lombok.

“We’ve been waiting for an answer for four months,” Syahidin said.

“Neither the provincial nor municipal administrations deigned to respond to our request.” The Ahmadis were driven from their homes in February 2006 by a marauding mob of local Muslim residents. The attackers burned down their homes and mosque.

They were evacuated to the Transito dormitory on Feb. 4 that year, to prevent more attacks.

The government has since stopped providing financial aid and food rations for the Ahmadis, and cut off the electricity to the shelter, claiming it cannot afford the costs.

“Should the government consider us guilty of whatever it is we’re being accused of, we’re ready for the legal process,” Syahidin said.

“We’re ready to go to prison, even without due legal process.

“All we want is to not be abandoned at the refugee camp, waiting in limbo,” he went on. “We’re humans who wish to live normal lives.”

On March 14 this year, the Ahmadis wrote to West Nusa Tenggara Governor Zainul Majdi, seeking permission to return to Ketapang.

But after a meeting with West Lombok administration officials, the refugees were told to delay their return, saying local authorities would buy up their homes and land to get them settled elsewhere. However, the West Nusa Tenggara administration later dropped the plan, citing, as ever, a lack of funds.

The U-turn forced the Ahmadiyah members to stay on at the refugee camp, having been forbidden from returning home to Ketapang or to relocate elsewhere.

On numerous occasions, local authorities have dissuaded them from leaving the camp by saying they would face certain persecution that the authorities had no intention of preventing.

This year’s Islamic fasting month of Ramadhan, expected to start on Aug. 22, will be the fourth for the Ahmadis at the Transito dormitory.

Mataram administration official Husnan Ahmad said Wednesday his office had actually allowed the refugees to return to Ketapang, on the condition they would have to assimilate into the local Muslim community.

“From the very beginning, the mayor has given them permission to return home, but only if they agree to not live ‘exclusively’,” he said.

He added the Ahmadis had not agreed to the terms.

Ahmadiyah members and properties have come under frequent attacks from mainstream Muslims across the country, following two separate decrees from the unctuous Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) and the Religious Affairs Ministry branding their teachings “heresy”.

A central Ahmadiyah belief is that the sect’s founder, Mirza Gulam Ahmad, was a prophet after Muhammad.

In July 2005, an estimated 10,000 members of the Indonesian Muslim Solidarity group attacked the Indonesian Ahmadiyah Congregation complex in Bogor, West Java.

URL: www.thejakartapost.com/n...ead.html

Ahmadiyah followers seek exit from shelter

---The Jakarta Post, Indonesia

National Wed, 08/05/2009 3:24 PM

Ahmadiyah followers seek exit from shelter

Panca Nugraha, The Jakarta Post, Mataram

Around 140 members of the Ahmadiyah sect and their families asked the Mataram municipal administration on Wednesday for permission to leave the shelter at the Transito Guest House where they have been living for the last three-and-a-half years.

Representatives of the Islamic sect, which has been deemed defiant by mainstream Muslim groups, met assistants to the Mataram mayor to make their request.

“We ask for a permit from the regional government to live in wherever part of the city, even along the river banks or slum areas. We are tired of living in the shelter,” coordinator of the displaced Ahmadiyah followers, Syahidin, said after a 30-minute meeting.

He said the Ahmadiyah members sought a permit to live in Mataram as the local government had never responded to their request to return to their home village of Gegerung, West Lombok.

“We have been waiting for the answer for four months. Both the provincial and municipal governments have not answered our request,” Syahidin said.

The Ahmadiyah followers were displaced from their village following an attack by hard-line Muslims in February 2006. The attackers burned down their homes and place of worship.

URL: www.thejakartapost.com/new...it-shelter.html