All groups must work for peace in W. Kalimantan

Bambang Bider, Kalimantan Review, Pontianak, West Kalimantan

Following ethnic conflict in West Kalimantan over the past three years, several groups are now campaigning for peace through various activities, mainly humanitarian and solidarity programs for victims of riots, mostly of Madurese descent. Seminars are also being held involving other ethnicities other than the Dayak and Madurese, namely the Chinese, Bugis and Javanese.

The once hostile groups have become wiser in dealing with different emerging issues. When a fight between members of these groups breaks out, they try to settle it amicably or turn the case over to the authorities.

Peace is a luxury. It takes courage to express this idea, let alone among those who were until recently gripped by vengeance and animosity. As of last year official reports estimated the death toll of at least 400 -- excluding the many decomposing bodies in the jungles and remote areas.

Yet the fact remains, there is no place to live comfortably unless people have mutual respect for each other regardless of diversity.

We are all the same -- those of the Dayak, Madura, Ambon, Java, Bugis, Papua or Sundanese. We should return to our human basic desire for peace, free of narrow views of diverse ethnicity, religion, or political views. We should all be convinced that gooodness is the basic teaching of all religions and faiths.

Reconciliation, the restoration of good relations, is the means we should all be yearning for. Reconciliation implies that those involved in conflict realize their respective misdeeds and their futile acts. Communal disintegration has resulted from their own behavior rather than that of outsiders -- regardless of accusations against "provocateurs".

A number of issues still lie in the path of reconciliation, the main one being that of victims. Among victims in West Kalimantan, refugees have refused to take up the offer of relocation to Tebang Kacang district.

The refugees have demanded that the allocation of Rp 15 million per family promised in 1999 should be soon distributed. This is because most have secured jobs in Pontianak and their children are attending local schools, which may not be the case if they were relocated.

According to the West Kalimantan Information Agency, most refugees in Pontianak camps have, however, left following the death of Fery Firmansyah with the resulting Malay-Madura clash in Pontianak and the wounding of a Dayak, Kayetanus, last year. Some of them have returned to their places of origin like Bengkayang regency, where they still possess land.

Those already relocated to Tebang Kacang will be provided with inland water transportation facilities, linking their new homes to Pontianak.

The best solution for those still remaining in refugee camps is to let them decide for themselves, whether to settle on Pontianak's outskirts, with government facilitation and funding. Peaceful reconciliation should be sought between refugees and the regional administration as well as between refugees and surrounding communities -- if Kalimantan is to truly become an amiable place shared by citizens of diverse origins and ancestries.

Victims have fallen from not only the Madurese group but also among the Dayaks and Malays, while the psychological burden has to be borne by their fellow citizens, namely the Chinese, Bugis and Batak people in the community. A peaceful atmosphere is what everybody wants.