Ethnic conflict in Central Kalimantan: The aftermath<\/p>\n
By Peter Kerr<\/p>\n
SAMPIT, Central Kalimantan (JP): A middle-aged Dayak woman
\nstands outside her home on Jl. Jenderal S. Parman, one of the
\nwide streets that lead away from the riverside port and market
\nhere.<\/p>\n
On each side of her property are the charred remains of homes
\nthat belonged to her Madurese neighbors, who are now either dead
\nor have escaped to East Java, she is not sure.<\/p>\n
The woman refuses to give her name. Like many in Sampit she is
\nafraid the Madurese may return to take revenge for the Dayak
\nrampage in February which killed about 500 Madurese, and perhaps
\nmore than 1,000.<\/p>\n
Across the road, the home of a Dayak man who works in the
\nlocal tax office also stands untouched between the ruins of
\nMadurese houses.<\/p>\n
\"I saw the fighting but I didn't want to see the outcome,\"
\nPiter Man says of Feb. 20 and 21 when hundreds of forest Dayaks
\n\"liberated\" Sampit from the Madurese, who days earlier had
\nclaimed the town as their own.<\/p>\n
\"They (the Dayaks from forests around Sampit) came here by
\ntruck and on foot many times over those days,\" he says.<\/p>\n
\"Some were in traditional dress, some in ordinary clothes with
\na red headband. They carried mandau (a machete-like sword) and
\nspears.\"<\/p>\n
Piter feels sorry for the good Madurese who died or were
\nevacuated, but says others were thieves, or they used violence to
\nsolve petty disputes.<\/p>\n
\"I feel safer now there are no Madurese in Sampit, but I'm
\nafraid they will come back for revenge.\"<\/p>\n
More than 100,000 Madurese fled Central Kalimantan province
\nbetween February and April this year after the massacre in Sampit
\nand neighboring towns.<\/p>\n
About 70,000 fled Sampit, the center of Central Kalimantan's
\ntimber trade where they had comprised more than 60 percent of the
\npopulation.<\/p>\n
The ethnic cleansing of Central Kalimantan is all but
\ncomplete. About 20 women in mixed marriages stay out of sight in
\nSampit, while a Madurese community of about 20,000 remains in the
\nadjacent district of Pangkalanbun, protected by a friendly
\ndistrict chief.<\/p>\n
Most escaped to Madura island off Java, where aid groups are
\nhelping local communities cope with the huge influx of displaced
\npeople into areas that often lack sewerage and drinking water.<\/p>\n
Despite the brutality in Sampit, where hundreds were beheaded
\naccording to Dayak fighting custom and more than 1,000 houses
\nrazed, most Madurese want to return to rebuild their homes and
\nbusinesses, in many cases established over two, three or four
\ngenerations.<\/p>\n
In Sampit that seems impossible to imagine, at least for some
\nyears.<\/p>\n
About a kilometer from Piter's house, a Batak man (from North
\nSumatra) rummages around in a drawer and brings out a small
\nphotograph album.<\/p>\n
It contains about 30 photos he took secretly in the days after
\nthe fighting, mostly of dead Madurese. One shows about 10 bodies,
\nalmost all headless, heaped in a side road.<\/p>\n
Others are close-ups: The bloated yellow body of a man
\nfloating in the river, his mustachioed face inflated cartoon-
\nlike. A torso in jeans and striped shirt, with a smear of red
\nwhere the head was sliced off. An out-of-focus head dumped white
\nand bald on the ground.<\/p>\n
Some photos are of Dayaks: A man in the morgue with his neck
\npartly severed and entrails spilling from his side. Another cut
\ndown on the footpath, his plastic basket of vegetables and eggs
\nscattered among the feet of onlookers.<\/p>\n
The explosion of violence in February took most outsiders by
\nsurprise, but Dayaks say it had been building for years, even
\ngenerations.<\/p>\n
At its core, they say, is the steady erosion of Dayak control
\nover their land and culture, the result of foreign companies
\nexploiting Kalimantan's forest and mineral wealth, and the
\narrival of immigrants from other parts of Indonesia.<\/p>\n
But in Sampit there also was simmering resentment against a
\nMadurese criminal element that established itself around the port
\nand market. This fueled the reputation that Madurese have among
\nother Indonesians of being forthright to the point of rudeness.<\/p>\n
Dayaks, immigrant Banjarese (from South Kalimantan) and others
\nfrom Java all blame Madurese for thievery and violence, saying
\nthey were quick to use their traditional curved clurit knives in
\ndisputes.<\/p>\n
A Javanese doctor in the local hospital agrees that, apart
\nfrom traffic accidents, most trauma injuries before the Madurese
\nleft were caused by clurit -- although he says most victims were
\nthemselves Madurese.<\/p>\n
What sparked the Sampit slaughter is unclear.<\/p>\n
Anger lingered over the police's failure to arrest three
\nMadurese for murdering a Dayak in nearby Kereng Pangi two months
\nearlier.<\/p>\n
The respected Brussels-based International Crisis Group, in a
\nreport two weeks ago, notes that Madurese in Sampit feared
\nrevenge attacks, and that Dayaks believed they were stockpiling
\nhomemade bombs.<\/p>\n
Shortly after midnight on Feb. 18 a group of Dayaks killed
\nfive Madurese in a Sampit house, and Madurese retaliated by
\nburning down a house containing a Dayak family.<\/p>\n
The majority Madurese then \"took control\" of Sampit, killing
\nup to 24 Dayaks and, according to Dayaks, patrolling the streets
\nwith banners such as \"Sampit is a Madurese town\" and \"Sampit is
\nthe second Sampang\" (a major town in Madura).<\/p>\n
Thousands of Dayaks and other non-Madurese fled Sampit,
\nspreading the news and setting the fuse for the bloody revenge to
\nfollow.<\/p>\n
The Dayak \"liberators\" are hailed as heroes in Sampit and the
\nCentral Kalimantan capital of Palangkaraya, where this month the
\nprovincial government will consider a permit system to regulate
\nwho can enter the province, basically aimed at keeping out
\nMadurese \"undesirables\".<\/p>\n
Dayaks also intend building a memorial near Sampit. Some say
\nthis will be a monument to peace; others want it to honor the
\nDayak \"victory\".<\/p>\n
\"There was no choice for them, they had to retaliate for their
\ndignity and integrity,\" says a senior member of the Council for
\nthe Liberation of Dayak Society and Provincial Community, set up
\nin 1994.<\/p>\n
He asks to remain anonymous, as council members have been
\naccused of inciting the violence and a number remain under city
\narrest in Sampit and Palangkaraya.<\/p>\n
\"This (conflict) was a result of the marginalization of the
\nDayak people -- political, economic and social -- during the New
\nOrder.<\/p>\n
\"Our Dayak lobby has been no good in Jakarta, but through this
\nconflict we are starting to get a voice there.<\/p>\n
\"This has been good (for Dayak culture). It has many
\nblessings, and we have to use it and move forward.\"<\/p>\n
He says regulations are needed to guarantee Madurese criminals
\ndo not return. In the longer term, Dayaks must be guaranteed a
\nfair share of Central Kalimantan's resources.<\/p>\n
This hardline stand was evident at a Kalimantan People's
\nCongress held last month, which accused the Madurese of starting
\nthe Sampit violence and demanded they apologize.<\/p>\n
The chairman of the provincial council, Fawzy Zain Bachsin,
\nsays priority will be given this month to regulating entry to the
\nprovince, but other changes will take much longer.<\/p>\n
A Dayak sociologist at Palangkaraya University, Arnusianto,
\nsays attempts to legislate for economic equality, while worthy,
\nwill have to deal with the reluctance of traditional Dayaks to
\nparticipate in the formal economy.<\/p>\n
\"They don't like to work like that ... they also don't work as
\nemployees, they are very independent,\" he says. \"They like to go
\nto the forest and live on their own.<\/p>\n
\"You can see there have been so many big companies -- timber
\nor palm oil plantations, big companies -- and the Dayaks still
\nlive in the forest around there.<\/p>\n
\"They're not really interested in working in the formal sector
\nlike that.\"<\/p>\n
He says as well that many Dayaks, not just those living a
\ntraditional lifestyle, do not appreciate the value of education.<\/p>\n
But one of those accused of inciting the violence against
\nMadurese, Pedlik Asser, puts this down to an historic denial of
\nDayak access to the benefits of their land's resources.<\/p>\n
\"They have not had the chance at education,\" says Pedlik, who
\ndenies claims that he paid forest Dayaks to start the Sampit
\nkillings.<\/p>\n
\"If the Dayak people are given the proper resources, maybe
\nthey can learn about the benefits of education.<\/p>\n
\"Firstly, you must know that the people want peace. Secondly,
\nthey want the legal right to manage their own natural resources.<\/p>\n
\"The Dayaks want to live together with the other people, but
\nwith conditions that ensure that they respect each other.\"<\/p>\n
The writer is deputy foreign editor at The Sydney Morning
\nHerald newspaper. He recently spent four months at The Jakarta
\nPost under a Medialink fellowship, funded by the Australia-
\nIndonesia Institute.<\/p>",
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