Splitting Sampit bloody tragedy

Jakarta, March 7, 2001 20:13
Haru crying broke out in the marquee Bangkalan District Office, Jalan Lieutenant Abdullah, on Friday last week. ''Thank God, finally we arrived at Madura,''said Jayadi, 31 years old, sobbed. After all, the joy was not long. A moment later, the skinny young man mused. ''We do not know where to go after this,''he said.

Jayadi keep checking an address: Village Nasoka, Ketapang district, Sampang regency. ''It is unclear who it is. Our mother was 50 years do not contacted his brother in Madura,''he sad. He does not know what to see who to ask for protection.

Jayadi is a bitter portrait of immigrant residents in Sampit, Central Kalimantan. They were forced to leave the ground after being hunted down Dayak people, who claim to be heirs of the earth Sampit.

Along with thousands of other refugees, Jayadi pull of the hot region, on Thursday last week, motor boat ride to Bukit Raya Surabaya. ''I survived because I was not the Madurese,''he said. He is genuine Semarang, but since the age of three years following the move to Sampit parents.

In 1989, married Jayadi Mubarak, 29 years old, her daughter Madurese Marini, 60 years old. They have three children, and settled in Sumber Makmur village, North Lower Land Use, County Sampit. Jayadi selling vegetables around the village. Despite a mediocre, they could live quietly, until it smashed.

Suffering begins Monday, February 19 last. At that time, Jayadi was a guest at her sister's house, Lastri, in Begendang Village, 500 meters from the village of Sumber Makmur. According to the testimony Jayadi, suddenly came a group of Dayaks ransacked the houses, burning, killing and even ethnic Madurese. There were about 15 people. Each person menggengam spear, saber (machete), chopsticks, and arrows. ''After the burning and killing, they were always called 'ukluk-ukluk-ukluk',''said Jayadi stamping his feet.

Together Lastri, he saw the massacre. ''In any case, each met the target, Cres ... Cres ... Cres,''tells Jayadi, putting his hand on his neck, like a cut throat. Jayadi had trembled when an armed group to look at him. When snorted, they pass. There's no words.

Jayadi not sure why could escape. He guessed, the group he was from Dayak Iban tribe, known as a sharp smell. As reported Suhartono Gatra journalists, Dayak Iban this is out of the village to conduct examination through scent. If there is considered the Madurese, they shouted,''Here is a cow ....''

Who did not have such capabilities to the conventional selection, through language. Immigrant residents told to count one to ten, and then asked to pronounce the word''yellow''. When ten spoken sepoloh, and Koning for yellow color, life can be broken.

After knowing the Madurese target rampage, Jayadi hurried home. Luckily they''had not yet reached my house,''he said. Wife, mother-in-law, and three children to panic. Jayadi take the initiative to evacuate them. ''I hide in the woods,''he said. About two miles from his home. ''Every day, I send food for my family,''said Jayadi. He himself stayed with the house so as not to burn.

However, only hotter atmosphere. Jayadi giddy. There are neighbors, fellow immigrants, who suggested that Jayadi just run away, without caring wife and children. ''If you're taken, would be subject to case by the Dayak tribe,''said Jayadi, mimicking cruel persuasion. Jayadi not want to hear it. ''I love my family,''said Jayadi the only graduate of this school. With the help of two local government officials (Local Government) Sampit, Jayadi finally managed to bring his family to the refugee camps in Sampit government office complex.

In the midst of senasibnya friend, Jayadi had hoped to return to normal quiet life. Unfortunately, it was only a dream. As he peered into the village, his house has been razed to the ground. Jayadi now do not have anything else. Finally, he decided to follow the advice in-law, returned to Madura. ''I do not have another brother in Semarang,''he said.

As a result of the tragedy Sampit, tens of thousands of people have suffered a tragic fate. Until last week, according to the Central Kalimantan government records, refugees who had been transported out of Borneo approximately 23,800 people, and who are still accommodated in the refugee camps of about 33,000 people.

Sociologist from the University of Indonesia, Imam B. Nugroho, said that the settlement of interethnic conflicts in Sampit and Palangkaraya should not be done with the evacuation of residents to other areas of Madura. ''This could provoke precisely that when people do not like the newcomers, on the island anywhere, could be sent away,''said Imam. The people in Irian Jaya or the other islands can do this. ''What we risk today is Indonesia as a pluralistic society. Government should not only busy with the smoke, but forgot where the fire,''Imam added.

What the hell, the government for a while as no other option but to evacuate. Government Spokesperson's office of Central Kalimantan, Harun al-Rashid, said that the evacuation had taken steps to avoid more casualties. The number of victims and Palangkaraya Sampit incidents that, according to Aaron, is 357 people - 341 of them from the ethnic Madurese. A total of 571 houses were burned. Evacuation''became the best way. This is in accordance with the consideration of field conditions, rather than referring to the theory,''said Aaron.

Once secure, says Aaron, refugees can return. The question is, when? Until now, police do not want to provide security. For this reason, M. Noer, the elder leaders of the Madurese, had hit the ceiling when he met Chief General S. Bimantoro in Surabaya, on Saturday last week.

Problem refugees are not easily solved. Just an example, due to ethnic conflict in Sambas, two years ago, tens of thousands of people still buried in the refugee camps in Pontianak. The number reached 68,000 people, scattered in the dorm hajj, Sharif Abdul Rahman Stadium, Sports Arena (GOR) Pangsuma, Equatorial Badminton Stadium, and Tanjungpura University Stadium.

Not to mention the refugees in other regions. The most often fuss and became an international problem is the refugees who now languish in East Nusa Tenggara. Those who fled after the popular consultation in East Timor, beginning September 1999, that number was around 80,000 people, shrinkage of the original number of 200,000 people.

In Palu and Donggala, there are still 10,000 victims of the riot in Poso who have not dared to return to his village. They were accommodated in three locations, namely Binangga Village, Sub Marawola, Donggala; Gawalise Stadium in Palu Municipality; also a former State Savings Bank office and the building Silae KNPI. There's more about the refugees in Ambon, North Maluku, and Aceh which hundreds of thousands.

Hence, on Friday last week the government decided to revive the National Coordinating Agency (Bakornas) for Disaster Mitigation and Refugee Management. This Agency during President Soeharto and B.J. Habibie led by Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare (Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare). Because of the Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare vacant post, the agency now headed by Vice President (VP) Megawati Sukarnoputri, with the secretary Bambang KESOWO, who served daily vice secretary. These institutions which will deal with natural disaster victims and refugees.

Of course, Bakornas could not stifle the violence. Incident Sampit to eat a lot of casualties, said a sociologist from the University Tanjungpura, Prof.. Syarief Algadrie Ibrahim, one of the causes is less compact military / police in the field. Coordination''is not clear from whom,''said Algadrie. In Sampit, the TNI and the police shoot-out instead involved (see: Tribute in the Middle Refugees).

Vice Chairman of the Legal Aid Foundation of Indonesia, Munir, said that security was effective because there is rivalry TNI and Police. Munir, as usual, poking: TNI considered letting the conflict erupted, playing for the troops for help. All this was done so that the impression that the police are unable to maintain keamaman. ''This is not just happening in Palangkaraya, also in Aceh, Papua and other conflict areas,''said Munir.

Accusations that the TNI had denied responsive Army Chief of Information Center, the Young Marshal Graito Usodo. Once the Army''was asked to assist the Police, we immediately responded,''he said. He mentions, the mobilization of troops takes time, both to collect personnel, aviation, and transportation to the scene. Easy''People say we're late. In fact, many things that cause delays. They do not want to see it with clear glasses,''said Graito.

Unfortunately, in the middle of the limitations of the apparatus, the riots spread it very quickly. At first, on February 18, found a Madurese people lying dead on the edge of the New Works Road, Sampit (March 3, 2000). Some residents Madura revenge. They set fire to nine homes Dayak people. Four people die - one person being struck by injuries celurit, the other three burned to death.

Vice Regent East Kotawaringin, H.M. Thamrin Noer, who went down to the location to monitor the situation on the Road BAAMANG, almost wiped out the people of Madura. Noer tried to calm the emotions of the masses. Fortunately, a citizen Madura influential enough to recognize. With a police escort, Thamrin and then left the location.

Madurese people continue to rage. Practical, for two days they controlled the arena. Feeling victorious wind, they unfurled a banner of victory. One reads,''Welcome to Sampang II''. Action is the actual anger residents invited Dayak. ''For the Dayak people, the land is an honor. Not an inch of any other person may be taken,''said JJ Kusni, Dayak's son, a graduate of the University of Sorbonne, Paris, disciplinary history, who taught at the Christian University of Palangkaraya.

Dayak tribe finally returned on February 20. From various directions, the mass Dayak poured into the Sampit. Atmosphere like a war. Dayak mass wearing a red headband and yellow. They were armed with saber, spear, and arrows. Before starting the war, they drank barem, Dayak traditional liquor. They chase the Madurese in every corner of the city of Sampit, even extends to Samuda, 70 kilometers south of Sampit.

The atmosphere was tense. Sampit fields like massacre. Bodies lying in the streets. River Land Use, which crossed the city of Sampit, washed away the bodies without heads. The hunt continued to expand until Palangkaraya.

Execution behead opponents in a culture known as the Dayak ngayau. Only, according to Head of Dayak culture Research Center, University of Palangkaraya, Prof.. H. Taxable Muhammad Aini Matseman Usop, 67 years old, this tradition had been abandoned since a century ago. ''It appears again as a form of impingement and the accumulation of feeling humiliated and oppressed,''said Usop.

Weak law enforcement, according to Usop, contributed to triggering the incident. ''Many cases are resolved legally tried, the results are disappointing. Guilty of Madurese often free. If convicted, just a minute,''he said. In short, in life, the Dayak felt continue to fool the Madurese. If self-esteem''constantly trampled upon, they can be angry, and this is the result,''he said.

Whatever, the case of the more menjulangkan Sampit Indonesia as the country's name''millions''of violence '. For several days, the international media presents''''ethnic violence in Sampit as the main menu. They menggeber writing with photographs sadistic, violent. The New York Times compares the atrocities during the French Revolution. The difference, in France, human heads with an ax cut the guillotine, while the Madurese people beheaded with a machete. ''Bodies scattered everywhere. Really cruel and barbaric,''wrote a very influential newspaper in the United States.

Violence in the country who had nicknamed''equator''of this emerald really was a foreign media spotlight. National Geographic, which typically examine only the environment and natural beauty, in March 2001 issue of reducing special reports of ethnic violence in the country. The title makes excited: Living Dangerously in Indonesia. Then, some Middle East television network shows human heads without bodies when President Gus Dur's speech opening the G-8 summit in Cairo, Egypt, on Sunday last week.

So the gravity of the affair, from the country a number of figures, including Muslim scholar Nurcholish Madjid, RI House Speaker Akbar Tandjung, MPR Chairman Amien Rais-RI, and Chairman of Indonesian Muslim Intellectuals Association Adi Sasono, to ask President Wahid to end a trip abroad . ''According to normal sizes, should go home because of this huge event. It's huge,''said Nurcholish Madjid.

But, Wahid seems prefer using their own size. ''I was abroad indicate that the situation in the country everything is OK. So, no need to worry about,''he said during a dialogue and dinner with the Indonesian community in Indonesia Embassy in Cairo, last week Monday night.

Foreign media, said Gus Dur, is too excessive. Notice''the foreign press too exaggerated. Events in Kalimantan seemed to have caused the destruction,''he said. As a result, Wahid continued to tour the country until March 7. His decision was, according to Gus Dur, taken after obtaining the advice of the Coordinating Minister for Political, Social, and Security Affairs Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and National Police Chief General S. Bimantoro. Gus Dur, as Defense Minister Moh. Mahfud MD, will visit Sampit, Thursday this week.

It had to be done. If not clever-clever climbing foam, Wahid's government would get a new inconvenience. Not impossible, this event will provide a place for independent Borneo demands. Kalimantan Caucus Chairman, Lieutenant General (retired) ZA Maulani, said that this idea was warmly welcomed Borneo society. ''That's because the public distrust of government central Kalimantan,''said the former head of the State Intelligence Coordinating Agency which is still bleeding Dayak.

Problem independent Borneo began to roll after 82 Dayak leaders to meet on January 30 and in Palangkaraya. Maulani himself admitted, though present at the meeting, he did not agree with the idea of an independent Borneo. It includes measures''treason,''he told Bambang Febri Triatmojo from Gatra. Genesis early in Sampit can indeed be the momentum for the market's separatist ideas.
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