'Death toll in ethnic clashes less than 300'

BANDUNG (JP): Army Chief Gen. Hartono said yesterday the death toll in the ethnic conflict in West Kalimantan was less than 300.

"No. It's wrong. The death toll is not that high," he said when asked to comment on one of his aides' accounts that the number of fatalities in the violence involving local Dayaks and migrants from Madura had exceeded 300.

Hartono was clarifying a statement by his assistant on security affairs Maj. Gen. Zacky Anwar Makarim quoted yesterday by the Media Indonesia and Kompas dailies.

Zacky also disclosed that the Army had identified four suspects for allegedly inciting the second wave of ethnic clashes in West Kalimantan.

Chairman of the National Commission on Human Rights Munawir Sjadzali said yesterday there were no final figures on the number of fatalities.

The commission sent a fact-finding mission to the province following the first wave of riots in the Sanggau Ledo district that began on Dec. 30. Munawir said the commission was also collecting data on the aftermath of the latest clashes that broke out late last month.

"It is too premature to release figures," he told reporters after meeting senior officials under Coordinating Minister for Political Affairs and Security Soesilo Soedarman.

Soesilo also voiced the same skepticism, saying that as the situation had not entirely returned to normal, it would be near impossible to find and count all the victims across the vast forested province.

The first clashes, that affected the Sanggau Ledo district late December, were triggered by a minor dispute over a woman. Five people were killed and 21 went missing following the unrest.

The second wave of clashes began in the West Kalimantan capital of Pontianak and surrounding areas on Jan. 29, less than a month after the two groups had agreed to a cease-fire.

Local residents said the latest unrest erupted following reports of an attack by 40 masked men, believed to be Madurese migrants, on a foundation that manages Catholic schools in the Siantan Tengah district. The attackers wounded two women living nearby, damaged school buildings and burned two motorcycles and a truck inside the foundation compound.

Both Munawir and Soesilo said the ethnic clashes in West Kalimantan were proving to be difficult to handle because the roots of the problem were complex.

But Soesilo said he was optimistic the trouble would eventually be resolved.

Riots

Speaking about the religious riots which rocked the Java towns of Situbondo, Tasikmalaya and Rengasdengklok, Munawir said the commission had found similar patterns in all of them.

"After all the riots broke out they quickly spread to surrounding areas," he said. "We also believe the motives behind the violence were connected.

Refusing to go into detail, Munawir said there was an indication the riots in Tasikmalaya and Rengasdengklok were also politically motivated.

Scores of shops, houses, churches, Buddhist temples, factories and government buildings were burned or damaged in the riots in the three towns.

Commission deputy chairman Marzuki Darusman, though insisting the commission would not conclude a third party was involved without firm evidence, said it was possible the riots had been instigated to achieve a political goal.

He said however the commission was currently focusing on reducing tension in West Kalimantan.

Suggesting a thorough investigation to seek the fundamental causes of the unrest, Marzuki called on the disputing parties to seek a solution to the unrest. (ahy/imn/01)

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