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Indonesian Ethnic Riots Continue
by Kazi Mahmood
SINGAPORE, March 23 (IslamOnline) - Indonesia's ethnic conflicts continue unabated with no solution is in sight to solve the misery settlers in Central Kalimantan find themselves in.
Ethnic Dayaks and Madurese again clashed on Thursday, resulting in 10 deaths.
The town of Kualakapuas has been the scene of more violence with four members of a Madurese family killed and two other children injured. Six others were killed on Tuesday in the same town, Antara reported.
The conflict has now become an open battle with observers fearing a repeat of February's ethnic cleansing campaign initiated by Dayaks may yet flare up again. Dayaks have vowed they will clean Central Kalimantan of all Madurese settlers not allow them to return.
Meanwhile, a number of leaders from East Java and Kalimantan met in Jakarta to seek some sort of peaceful solution to the deadly conflict.
Indonesian officials were trying to heal the animosity between the two ethnic groups, but efforts in Jakarta towards that end dissipated on Wednesday as vice president Megawati Sukarnoputri failed to attend peace talks.
At the end of the meeting, a joint statement was issued signed by representatives of the conflicting parties that called for an end to the conflict between the local and migrant peoples. They also agreed to protect properties of Madurese who had fled the violence.
With the slow response from Jakarta and the passive role played by the police and army in last month's conflict, observers fear Dayaks in Central Kalimantan may turn the conflict into another secessionist move, which observers say could fuel secessionist drives in other provinces and cause Indonesia, the largest Muslim country on the globe with 210 million people, to break up into several smaller republics.
Kualakapuas, the newest area to become involved in ethnic conflicts, is 200 kilometers from Sampit, the town that saw the worst of the recent bloodshed.
Police and soldiers have been deployed to hunt down attackers and reestablish security in the area. About 100 men, reinforced by an unspecified number of soldiers from the local army command, were deployed.
In February, Dayaks rampaged through Sampit and the provincial capital of Palangkaraya, leaving at least 500 people dead, most of whom were beheaded. The Dayaks did not spare men, women or children (including babies) in the killing spree.
The conflict between the groups is fuelled by a significant social imbalance and conflict of economic interests between the two.
More than 50,000 Madurese have fled the province or were evacuated to safer areas within Indonesia. The conflict has left thousands stranded in makeshift relief centers, with slow progress in their resettlement in other parts of Madura and Java Islands.
Tensions in Kualakapuas rose last week when a local group warned members of the Madurese community to leave town by March 21st, Antara reported.
At least 700 Madurese migrants have already left Kualakapuas. They were sheltered at a local gymnasium before being trucked out of the province to Banjarmasin, the capital of South Kalimantan province.
Two hundred forty army soldiers, who arrived from Balikpapan in East Kalimantan on Monday, have reinforced security in Kualakapuas.
Last Sunday's clashes followed rumors that Madurese migrants would retaliate for Dayaks attacks that had left hundreds dead in Central Kalimantan.
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