Minor clashes continue in Sambas regency
JAKARTA (JP): Sporadic attacks continue against Madurese migrants in the West Kalimantan regency of Sambas, provincial police chief Col. Chaerul Rasjid said on Thursday.
Chaerul was quoted as saying by Antara that security personnel were in general maintaining order and preventing clashes from escalating.
His statement came after an overnight incident in which an ethnic Malay man was killed and a troop was wounded in Sungaikeran hamlet. Both were hit by gunshots.
A command post officer of the Sambas Police, Maj. Husaini Najiri, told The Jakarta Post on Thursday that the 50-year-old civilian, identified as Saleh, died at a local military hospital. A bullet from a makeshift rifle also grazed the chin of Private Marwan Harifah, but he was discharged from the hospital after receiving treatment.
Security troops nabbed two alleged rioters, one of them a 15- year-old male, and seized three homemade rifles, 56 bullets and gunpowder.
Husaini said security personnel opened fire on a group of Malays and Dayaks from neighboring Sungai Rukmajaya village who fought Madurese settlers and torched six of their houses.
Hundreds of Madurese fled during the peak of the ethnic riots in the province last month.
About 100 reinforcements from the provincial military and police have been dispatched to Sungaikeran, according to Husaini.
Local legislator Bong Cin Nen said a peacekeeping team from the National Police was mediating talks with community leaders. The team includes two sociologists.
Col. Chaerul said that although calm returned to previously riot-hit areas, tension rose to an alarming level in Darit, Mandor and Sungairaya districts.
"Youth mental development programs we conducted in those three areas have been unsuccessful," Chaerul said, adding that more reinforcements were deployed to anticipate possible clashes.
Clashes pitting the Madurese community against Malays and Dayaks erupted in mid-January, claiming at least 200 lives and driving 29,000 Madurese settlers from their homes.
Calm
Calm also is gradually returning to riot-torn Southeast Maluku regency although fears of fresh clashes remain.
Antara reported local people resumed their daily activities, but were not leaving their villages.
Businesses and the public transportation system have yet to fully resume operations. As most shops and markets are still closed, people cannot buy essential food, particularly rice, palm oil and noodles.
Activity was observed at state bank BRI and private bank Danamon in the regency capital of Tual on Thursday as employees disbursed their salaries. Military troops were alert around the banks.
Suspicion between conflicting groups persists and leaflets encouraging resumption of hostilities are easy to find.
Security troops have cleared barricades from streets in Kei Besar and Kei Kecil districts, the areas most affected by communal clashes.
A riot reinforcement battalion from the Army Strategic Reserves Command based in Purwakarta, West Java, has arrived in the regency. They are disarming the conflicting groups and helping in repairs to homes, mosques, churches and other buildings.
Communal clashes between Muslim and Christian groups broke out late in March and spread across the regency. With 64 more bodies found on Wednesday, the death toll from religious conflict moved closer to 200. Another 200 were killed in sectarian clashes in the provincial capital of Ambon.
In Jakarta, President B.J. Habibie urged settlers in other parts of the country and their host communities to learn each other's cultures in a bid to avoid fresh communal clashes.
"Each transmigration program should provide complete information to both sides, both to the prospective migrants and to the local community," Habibie said when opening a two-day seminar on the transmigration program.
"The local culture should become the main focus of the organizers and should also be known by the migrants to be resettled, so that harmony and synergy in neighborly life can take place," he added.
He admitted there were flaws in the 50-year-old government program which has moved millions of people from the overpopulated islands of Java, Madura and Bali, but pledged to make improvements.
"The target for the development of each location for transmigration should be clear so the utilization of the natural resources could be maximized by all in a harmonious cooperation." He added that new settlements should not become isolated enclaves. (amd)