Ethnic tension remains high in Borneo

Mobs set the streets of Pontianak alight by burning stalls on Thursday

October 27, 2000
Web posted at: 6:54 AM HKT (2254 GMT)

By staff and wire reports

PONTIANAK, Indonesia -- The situation remains tense in the West Kalimantan province of Indonesia, where at least three people have been killed in clashes between ethnic groups.

Witnesses say armed mobs of indigenous groups are huntiing down migrants from the island of Madura off Java.

On Wednesday, one Madurese man was hacked to death by a mob armed with machetes after he sought refuge at a police station. A nighttime curfew has been imposed in capital of West Kalimantan, located on the island of Borneo. Police have been firing blanks to restore calm.

On Thursday, indigenous Malay groups armed with machetes, swords and homemade guns roamed the streets of Pontianak, and hunted down newcomers from elsewhere in Indonesia, witnesses said.

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Many neighborhoods and buildings in Pontianak, 420 miles north of Jakarta, were barricaded. Mobs lit bonfires in the main street and burned property belonging to settlers. About 1,000 police and 500 soldiers had been deployed around the town.

In one attack Thursday, Malay youths cornered a man in a market. Police fired warning shots but failed to stop the youths from decapitating their victim.

Most international citizens in the town had fled or were planning to leave, including a British theatrical group that had been holding drama workshops to encourage ethnic harmony.

Police attempt to control rioters in Pontianak

Police said the violence was triggered by a traffic accident Wednesday involving individuals from rival ethnic groups.

Gruesome clashes involving Malays as well as other indigenous groups against settlers have flared periodically in the region. Hundreds of people, mostly Madurese, were killed in 1999.

Many of the newcomers left overcrowded Madura in the past two decades to settle in relatively underdeveloped Borneo under a government plan. Local people resent the loss of land to the Madurese, who get money from the state to set up farms and homes.

West Kalimantan is only one of Indonesia's many flashpoints. Death tolls in the religious war in Maluku and the separatist insurgency in Aceh have reached the thousands.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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