Conflict mapping is needed, says sociologist

Conflict mapping is needed, says sociologist

YOGYAKARTA (JP): Detailed conflict mapping, showing the areas
with potential for conflict, is needed to help the government
prevent communal and sectarian clashes which endanger the
nation's unity and sovereignty, a sociologist has said.

Yogyakarta's Gadjah Mada University Sociologist Lambang
Trijono told The Jakarta Post on Saturday that actually it was
too late for the government to make such a map. "But the mapping
is badly needed as this archipelagic country has abundant ethnic
groups, each with its own culture."

Lambang, who is a researcher at the Center of Security and
Peace Studies at Gadjah Mada University said that the government
has been too sluggish in dealing with the Sampit clamor.

At least 400 people, mostly Madurese migrants, were killed in
the mayhem which started about two weeks ago.

"The (Sampit) riot took place because the government had yet
to resolve similar clashes in other areas properly. As soon as
Sambas and Sanggau Ledo broke out the government should have
taken proper steps, by among other things, proper law
enforcement," he said referring to the Dayak-Madurese communal
clashes in Central Kalimantan, which killed hundreds of people,
mostly Madurese, in early 1999.

"As soon as communal clashes erupted in Sambas and Sanggau
Ledo, the government should have carried out conflict mapping to
prevent further clashes from happening in other parts of the
country.

A series of communal and sectarian clashes in Indonesia was
the reflection of the government's failure in establishing
tolerance and equality among citizens.

In a pluralistic society such as Indonesia's an ability to
manage prejudice among ethnic groups is very important. "In the
long run comprehensive cultural education is needed in order that
differences among ethnic groups do not turn to conflict."

Sharing her opinion, a criminal law expert from the
Padjadjaran University in Bandung, Komariah Emong Sapardjaja,
said in a separate interview that the Sampit clamor
was like an echo of the other unresolved deadly mayhem.

"Poor law enforcement and unfinished legal proceedings to deal
with those guilty in other riots have encouraged people to engage
in similar chaotic action. People may have been given the
impression that killing people will not be prosecuted."

"The law should have become the bastion to curb other
conflicts from occurring in Kalimantan and it should treat people
the same regardless of their religion and race. Therefore, both
Dayak and Madurese people should be equal in the eyes of the
law," Komariah said.

She said that those committing crimes, including murder and
arson, should be prosecuted soon.

Komariah said that legal proceedings must be followed by
social, mass psychological and economic educational approaches,
as the clashes have had a complex background.

Education

Meanwhile, an expert in education Suyanto, said that it would
take time for the child refugees involved to eliminate their
feelings of trauma.

"The child refugees may have serious psychological problems
after seeing murders and other kind of violence. They need time
to wipe out the horror," the rector of the State University of
Yogyakarta said.

He assumed that the Sampit genocide was more brutal than the
Jewish ethnic cleansing carried out by the Nazis in the
Holocaust.

"The refugee children do need proper education. Don't take
this problem for granted. Emergency classrooms must be built.
Elementary school students from the first, second and third
grades could join in one class, while those of the fourth, fifth
and sixth grades could join together in another class in an
emergency situation."

From an economic point of view the recent Central Kalimantan
violence would not cause significant losses to the national
economy.

Economist Arief Ramlan Karseno of Gadjah Mada University said
on Saturday that the country's economy now mostly depended on
exports, "but the clash does have an impact on foreign
investment."

"It has almost no impact currently on foreign investors
because they had been reluctant to come into Indonesia for
several years before the conflict in Sampit erupted. But, of
course, the ethnic clash in Sampit will force the government to
work harder to woo foreign investors," he said.

Karseno said that the negative impact of the riot had affected
politics more than the country's economic scene.

"The riot inevitably gives President Abdurrahman Wahid's
government another negative image, but I doubt that it will cause
too much damage to the country's economy, which is currently
based on income from international trade," he said.

Last year, he added, the national economy was based mostly on
the rising value of exports compared with a relative decline in
foreign imports since the economic crisis hit the country few
years ago.

Karseno said that the current government had managed to boost
the country's international trade as showed in last year's export
figures and the 10 percent increase in the value of exports in
January this year.

Locally, he said, the ethnic clash could cause economic loss
to the Central Kalimantan administration as many public assets
had been destroyed.

"If the mobs destroyed a market, the administration must build
a new market to make local economy revive. Economically, the area
most affected by the Sampit riot is Sampit regency," he said.

Karseno said that the riot would temporarily disturb export
activities from the riot-torn areas but trade would regain as
soon as the riot was properly dealt with. He said that Central
Kalimantan province mainly exported raw material such as wood,
and other natural resources.

Karseno said there was no other choice for the government but
to stop the violence.

"The sooner the violence is curbed the better for the
country," he said. (23/44/25)