Tales of horror from the West Kalimantan conflict

PONTIANAK, West Kalimantan (JP): The death toll in the northeast of West Kalimantan may be disputed but the survivors' tales of horror from the ethnic conflict there cannot be denied.

Kinok's and Aman's two children now live at their grandfather's house, not far from where Aman was slain on Feb. 2 in Pahauman, West Kalimantan. Aman owned a small shoe shop in the town. His assistant, Musa, who was married to Kinok's sister, was also killed there.

They died with many other Madurese who had not fled the town before the killing started.

Aman and Musa are both survived by their Dayak wives and half- caste children.

The Dayaks in Pahauman, like those in many villages in the province's northeast, have declared war on the Madurese, vowing to fight until there are no more of them in West Kalimantan.

No peace was in sight last week, even though the government had been working hard to stop the fighting. The government claims that a peace agreement was reached between leaders of the ethnic groups on Feb. 18.

Lawrence Kadir, the head of the provincial Directorate of Village Development, said: "The peace will not last. It only stops (the violence) momentarily. The reason for this is that peace has only been introduced by the elite, the general community does not think about peace."

Driving 600 kilometers across the northeast of the province, this became obvious.

The Army had set up roadblocks around Pontianak and Singkawang to stop Dayak people from the villages taking their fight to these cities, and to stop Madurese seeking revenge in the interior.

But to the north and east of these roadblocks no Madurese were safe. Armed Dayaks patrolled the roads and jungle hunting Madurese survivors. They killed the ones they found.

If you asked Dayaks why they were killing Madurese, their answer was simple: "They always break the treaties."

The government-initiated treaties had failed dismally.

On Jan. 8, a treaty was signed by Dayaks and Madurese to stop the fighting which had broken out around Sanggau Ledo in late December.

The Dayaks said the Madurese broke this treaty when they attacked a Catholic school on Jan. 29, and when they butchered three Dayak men the following day on the road north of Pontianak.

The Dayak cultural leader in a village near Pahauman said his people had had enough, and that their mission was simple: "To rid West Kalimantan of all Madurese."

But he had not considered his young half-Madurese relatives.

Kinok's nephew, Josef, said: "The children would stay in the village with the Dayak people if they followed their mother's (Dayak) side, but if they followed their father's (Madurese) side they would be sent to Pontianak.

"They will most likely go to Pontianak because their mother does not know how to find work in the village."

Kinok is in hospital in Pontianak. She, contrary to the advice of her relatives, refused to desert her husband when the ethnic unrest began. She was shot in the leg while trying to protect him from her own people.

H.M. Hambali, a member of the provincial House of Representatives, doubted that the Dayak people could ever throw the Madurese out of West Kalimantan.

"Maybe that's the request of one group (of Dayak people). I think this request is impossible."

Hambali, a Madurese born in West Kalimantan, has a Dayak wife and several children. He feels that West Kalimantan is his home, not Madura. But the gravity of the killing has taken its toll on him.

He said, "I have lost seven kilograms because of being up all night receiving telephone calls."

But he said, "The situation in Kalimantan is now safe."

He firmly believes that the Madurese and Dayak people can reconcile their cultural differences and coexist in West Kalimantan.

He said the fighting has been inflamed by "Madurese in Java who have come here to become heroes".

Trouble has been brewing between the Madurese and the indigenous Dayaks since the late 1960s when the Madurese, who came as laborers to build roads, settled in the province.

Local government officials and Catholic priests said the conflict had occurred because the groups' cultures were incompatible.

In West Kalimantan, the Madurese have the reputation of being short-tempered, vengeful and quick to draw knives. It is Madurese custom to carry a knife. This combination has not been well received by the Dayaks.

Pastor Secundus, a Dutch priest who has worked mostly in Pontianak since 1951, said: "The Dayak is a very kind man. He doesn't know any cruelty. You can steal his trousers, you can steal his pig, you can steal his land... But if there is one drop of blood there will be fire."

Marginalized

But the source of the Dayaks' wrath in this conflict may be that they were marginalized by development and have had no real chance in government.

Kadir said, "I think this incident actually accumulated from other problems besides cultural differences. The newcomers, for example, were lent land. Now they (the Dayaks) must fight to get that land back. Generally, the people in the kampong do not want it but they retreat into themselves until their feelings explode.

"I think they are genuine in wanting their land to be returned because it was not taken legally."

Pastor Secundus said, "The concrete object now is the Madurese, but what is behind it is the unhappiness of the Dayak generally. They didn't have the chance, they were never heard. No one has an interest in them.

"Before the war (World War II) there were no Dayak officials at all.

"The whole government was in the hands of the Malayan people, especially inner affairs. And they hold it until today with very strong nepotism."

Many Dayaks in West Kalimantan spoke happily about the days of Oevang Oeray, the first elected governor of West Kalimantan. He was the first and only Dayak governor of West Kalimantan, serving from 1960 to 1966.

They said the governors that succeeded him had not kept an open house or heard their problems and aspirations.

Pastor Secundus said, "The Dayak can be a district head, but all his staff will be Malay. The governor appoints a Dayak (as head of a district) but he can't do anything."

In the villages, the Dayaks said they were "sick of being treated like fools". The Madurese, who have long been feuding with the Dayaks, have become an obvious target for the Dayaks' anger.

One Dayak said, "After we throw out the Madurese, no one will treat us like fools again."

The Dayaks had never been united like they were against the Madurese.

Pastor Secundus said, "They now speak about the Dayak. The Dayak is a foreign word. They know themselves formally as the name of their own tribe... There is still silent fighting amongst them, not physical."

But along the roads in the interior, the Dayak sign of war -- a red cord tied around some leaves -- was hung on the front of nearly every Dayak house.

And most of the Madurese houses along the inland roads had been burned to the ground by Dayaks, who had been careful not to attack or burn government buildings, houses belonging to people of Javanese or Malayan descent or mosques, even though most Madurese are Moslem.

Along the roads, people had painted the names of their ethnic groups on their houses to show that they were not Madurese.

The Dayak people had also been busy painting signs along the road to warn the Madurese never to return. A sign next to the road near Anjungan stated, "The Dayaks will struggle until their last drop of blood if the Madurese are still in Kalimantan."

This is not the first incidence of violence between the Dayaks and Madurese.

Their biggest previous battle was fought in 1979, when several people died in a conflict over land. The government has built a monument in Samalantan to remind the people of ethnic unity. The monument bears no inscription regarding the 1979 incident.

The government is going to have to do much more than build monuments and initiate peace pacts between its chosen leaders to reconcile the Madurese and Dayaks this time. Too many of them have died.

And as Hambali said, if we talk revenge, God knows what will happen. (tak)