A/HRC/13/40/Add.1 J. Indonesia 1. Communication sent on 26 November 2007 (a) Allegations transmitted to the Government 107. The Special Rapporteur brought to the attention of the Government information she had received regarding the local Bahá’í community in Palolo, Donggala district, Central Sulawesi. Summaries of this communication as well as observations of the Special Rapporteur are already reproduced in A/HRC/7/10/Add.1, paras. 112-114. (b) Response from the Government dated 28 December 2007 108. In its letter dated 28 December 2007, the Government of Indonesia provided clarifications on the case of the local Bahá’í community in Palolo.2 It had been reported that some individuals, allegedly government officials from the Office of Religious Affairs, tried to incite members of the Bahá’í community living in the Donggala district of Central Sulawesi to recant their faith. The Government indicated that, according to the information available, some of the individuals in question were previously Muslims who, after choosing to become followers of the Bahá’í faith, changed their minds and reverted back to their original religion, Islam. 109. The Government referred to the case of two individuals, Mr. X. aged 40 and Mr. Y. aged 70, who had embraced the Bahá’í doctrine for eight years, however, they voluntarily decided to convert back to Islam in November 2007. Before reconverting, these two men were invited, along with five other Bahá’í followers, to a meeting organized by prominent religious figures in Palolo. This meeting took place in an Islamic religious schools known as the Madrasah Tsanawiyah Alkhaeraat. The object of the meeting was to encourage the Bahá’í followers to clarify their position and intentions publicly and to give them the opportunity to explain their choices before the local community in order to dispel any misunderstandings or fears among the latter. One Bahá’í member stated during the meeting that he would continue to follow the Bahá’í faith because of its teaching of oneness with God and the values of goodness which can be practised on a daily basis in everyday life. Equally, most members of the sect adhere to the ideology of respect for family members who still follow their previous religious beliefs. The meeting was also attended by the chief of the Palolo district police and he stated that he would be monitoring the developments in the Bahá’í community in that area in order to help them ensure that there was no conflict on this issue. 110. The Government further indicated that in November 2007 Mr. X. and Mr. Y. went to the Muhajirin mosque in Nuyyun Nur where they scheduled to publicly return to Islam. As part of the ceremony, there was a procession which was led by the head of the Religious Affairs Office of the Palolo sub-district of Nuyyun Nur. With regard to other communities of Bahá’í believers mentioned in the communication, the Government noted that in Banpers village, in the Palolo sub-district of Donggala, South Sulawesi, there was a community of overt thirty Bahá’í followers who had been living there peacefully, all of whom were also converts from Islam. 111. The Government reiterated the respect it holds for all religions recognized in the 1945 Constitution and its subsequent amendments. The founding principles of the Pancasila and the ensuing national legislation had also established the right of every person to freely 2 30 The Government’s reply was received by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights on 28 April 2009.