Kalimantan unrest not religious: Community leaders
JAKARTA (JP): Fifteen religious leaders in the West Kalimantan capital of Pontianak agreed yesterday that the continuing clashes between migrants from Madura and native Dayaks are not religiously motivated.
In a joint statement, leaders of Moslem, Catholic, Protestant, Hindu and Buddhist organizations called for the government and military to find a thorough solution.
"We are supportive of the government and the Armed Forces' efforts to solve the problems according to the prevailing laws in a just and wise manner," the statement said.
The religious leaders also called on the public not to be provoked by "misleading rumors that could harm the harmonious coexistence among believers of different religions."
The unrest pits Dayak, who are generally Christian, and migrants from Madura, who are predominantly Moslem. It is understood that the two ethnic groups have a deep-seated enmity.
Reliable sources in Pontianak told The Jakarta Post yesterday there had been no reports of attacks on places of worship.
Recent sporadic fighting follows a major clash triggered by a trivial incident over a woman at a party last December. At least four people were killed and 21 are still missing from the ensuing clashes.
The fighting resumed last month. Military and government officials have been tight-lipped on what triggered the new wave of fighting. Reliable sources said that it broke out after migrants from Madura violated a truce when they attacked a dormitory housing Dayaks in Siantan late last month.
Residents said that Pontianak was calm but tense yesterday. The authorities extended the night curfew by an hour from 9 p.m. to 8 p.m., until 5 a.m.
"The latest call for people not to go out during the curfew hours came amid rumors that the migrants are going to attack Dayak homes here in the next few days," the source said.
The source reported that the military presence is not that great in the capital, but that soldiers were seen on high alert at their posts.
"When night falls, soldiers go patrolling in vehicles around the town and up the suburbs are heavily guarded," the source said.
Another local resident also reported that pedicab and public van drivers, who are mostly from Madura, were working shorter hours apparently for security reasons.
"Maduranese youths who usually hang round the streets here are now rarely seen," the source said.
Another source in Sintang, some 400 kilometers east of Pontianak, reported that the town -- which has been blocked off from Pontianak for several days -- is "normal but prices of some basic needs have soared by 300 percent."
"Those who insist on going to Pontianak have to take an airplane for which ticket prices have soared threefold, or a boat that will take them three days."
The source also reported that scores of Maduranese took refuge in a tightly guarded local transmigration site in Transito subdistrict, about one and a half hours drive from Sintang.
Police and military officials still refused to comment on the latest situation yesterday.
Separately, an unnamed military official in Jakarta told AFP yesterday that "dozens of people" had died in ethnic clashes in West Kalimantan since late December. (08)