Sampit revisited

More than a week after a wave of violence and anarchy began to sweep the Central Kalimantan heartland, in the township of Sampit, there is still no sign that the ethnic turmoil that is threatening to tear apart this nation's unity is about to end.

In fact, rather the opposite is true. As of yesterday, the authorities in Sampit seem to have the situation more or less under control. However, elsewhere in the province the bloody conflict involving the local Dayak population and settlers from Madura Island off the East Java coast is spreading and has now reached the provincial capital Palangkaraya itself.

Over the past weekend, bands of Dayaks armed with spears and machetes roamed the streets of Palangkaraya, hunting down and killing any Madurese settlers they could find and setting their homes on fire.

No precise count of the casualties from the killing spree was immediately available, but media reports have put the total count of people killed in Central Kalimantan during the past week of violence at more than 250 as of yesterday. Unofficial reports, however, say the death toll could run as high as 400 or more as many decomposing bodies have yet to be removed from the jungle and other remote areas. Hundreds of houses have been reduced to ashes, their contents looted, and the number of Madurese who have fled into the jungle is estimated to have reached about 5,000.

In several areas in the city, police personnel stood helpless as they watched the rioting. This and the fact that the outbreak of trouble in Palangkaraya occurred on the very day that National Police Chief Gen. (Pol.) Surojo Bimantoro and Military (TNI) Chief Adm. Widodo A.S. arrived on the spot -- accompanied by the Minister of Health and Social Welfare Achmad Sujudi and military intelligence chief Vice Marshal Ian Santoso Perdanakusumah -- only illustrates the low esteem and the lack of authority which the government suffers at the moment.

Indonesians, it is true, have of late heard some rather strong and welcoming statements from Minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the Coordinating Minister of Political and Social Affairs and Security. In the latest such statement made on Sunday in Sampit, for example, Susilo said all those guilty of killing, looting or committing arson must be arrested and brought to justice.

The government, he said, would take immediate steps to see to it that the turmoil in Central Kalimantan is put to an end, placing first priority on protecting human lives against acts of violence including killings, torture and arson. The second priority would be restoring peace and order, including providing humanitarian assistance to refugees and other members of the populace suffering from the aftermath of the violence.

In enforcing the law in the area, proper emphasis would be given to persuasive means. "However, if necessary, repressive means should not be considered impossible," he added. President Abdurrahman Wahid's statement, which he made in Cairo on Sunday, that he would order special troops to be dispatched to Central Kalimantan could further strengthen the impression that the government, at last, is prepared to take firm measures to stop the anarchy that has been plaguing a number of areas in Indonesia.

Pressured from all sides to start acting decisively in order to save the country from disintegrating -- and his own government from collapsing -- President Abdurrahman Wahid may finally have been persuaded to act with some measure of resolution. The problem is whether the state apparatus is ready to follow.

So far the National Police and Military authorities are both inclined to use the human rights argument to refrain from taking firm action even when firm action is clearly mandated to protect the rights of others. Until this hurdle is passed little hope exists for peace and order anywhere in this archipelago.

But passing this hurdle will be only the first step towards finding a lasting solution to stopping the inherent centrifugal forces that are threatening to pull this nation apart. The next and much more difficult step to take is to try to bring the diverse ethnic groups of Indonesia closer together -- especially in the so-called resettlement areas -- by eliminating economic disparities between groups and by a more cultural approach in order to sow the seeds of mutual appreciation among Indonesia's hugely diverse population.