|
Madurese Prohibited from Returning to Kalimantan
JAKARTA, Sept 5 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Hundreds of stranded ethnic Madurese have been warned that they will not be allowed to enter Kapuas in central Kalimantan, news sources said on Wednesday.
The refugees, currently in Banjarmasin, escaped the fiery killings that took place in February this year when local Dayaks slaughtered 500 Madurese Muslims.
They had high hopes they would be allowed back to their homes in Kapuas. However, residents in Kapuas warned them not to return, as they were unwanted.
The Indonesian government has handed over the responsibility to handle the Kalimantan crisis to Vice President Hamzah Haz.
Haz has formed a team to deal with the crisis, announcing he will visit Kalimantan soon.
More than 50,000 ethnic Madurese were forced to leave Kalimantan at the height of the grizzly killings. They are living in squalid conditions, with children suffering from malnutrition, sources said.
The conditions of refugees in Banjarmasin has also deteriorated; they have very little food supplies and sleep on newsprints stacked on the floor.
The Indonesian vice president on Tuesday said he will visit Northern Kalimantan on September 11th and hoped he would be able to resolve a series of issues with community leaders there.
Haz is scheduled to travel to Kalimantan with a host of other ministers who are assisting him in his efforts to bring an end to the ethnic crisis.
The Dayaks, indigenous to Kalimantan, went on a killing spree in February, chasing ethnic Madurese out of several cities and villages in the province.
The situation worsened in Kalimantan when both the military and police stood-by and allowed Dayaks to proceed with the cleansing operation.
The authorities inaction sent waves of shock across Indonesia and severely damaged former president Abdurrahman Wahid's image, who had decided to go for the Hajj during the tragedy.
Despite having enough water cannons and teargas to deal with the massive uprising, the police failed to stop the killings.
An analyst on Tuesday said the central government had to realize the extent of bitterness the Dayak people feel toward successive Indonesian governments in marginalizing them on all fronts.
The Dayaks resented the influx of Javanese and Madurese migrants who benefited from the government's transmigration program, feeling alienated from their own customary lands.
The Madurese are staunch Sunni Muslims, living mostly on the island of Madura, which has a population of around 15 million.
They are one of the hundreds of groups living in the 17,000 islands that make up Indonesia. Visitors to Madura say they are a friendly, outspoken and loyal people.
They have also been called "invincible warriors" in ancient times, but they seemed no match to the Dayaks, armed with knives, hatchets and traditional poison arrows, when they were attacked in February.
With additional reporting by Kazi Mahmood
|
