Kalimantan unrest not religious: Community leaders

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)