Genocidal Massacres in Indonesian Borneo

More than four hundred people have been murdered in ethnic massacres in the Indonesian province of Kalimantan on the island of Borneo. Armed gangs of indigenous Dayaks are hunting down immigrants from the island of Madura and killing them, often by beheading. Bands of Dayaks are going house to house searching for Madurese and burning their villages. In an eerie reminder of the roadblocks during the Rwandan genocide, Dayaks armed with machetes and spears have set up roadblocks on every route out of the cities where they search vehicles for Madurese passengers. Those they find, they kill.

The Dayaks’ expressed aim is to drive out the 100,000 Madurese who settled in Kalimantan during the former Suharto government. The Dayaks believe the Madurese have taken Dayak land and jobs. The ethnic cleansing is working. Terrified Madurese are fleeing to camps in cities like Sampit, and thousands are boarding ships to leave the island. The killing is spreading to rural villages. The Indonesian army and police are vastly outnumbered by the Dayak mobs and have remained passive in the face of the arson, looting, and massacres.

The Genocide Convention defines genocide as “any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group, as such: Killing members of the group.” The Dayak mobs clearly intend to destroy part of the Madurese ethnic group. They are committing genocidal massacres. If they are not stopped, they will succeed in committing genocide. They are also using the genocidal massacres as a terror tactic for ethnic cleansing, another crime against humanity.

The members of The International Campaign to End Genocide urgently call upon our governments to encourage the Indonesian government to reinforce its troops and police forces in Kalimantan and immediately to order them to protect human lives by taking firm action to stop and arrest Dayak gangs, dismantle Dayak roadblocks, impose a strict curfew, and halt all arson, looting, and murders. If the Indonesian government needs assistance in restoring order, it should not hesitate to ask for help, particularly from fellow members of ASEAN. Following the restoration of order, we hope that a national commission will be appointed to examine the conflict and to recommend how justice should be achieved so that Dayaks, Madurese, and others in Kalimantan can live together in peace.

The International Campaign to End Genocide is a coalition of human rights organizations founded at the Hague Appeal for Peace in 1999. The Coordinator is Genocide Watch, P.O. Box 809, Washington, D.C. 20044 U.S.A. Telephone: 1-703-448-0222. FAX: 1-703-448-6665. E-mail: info@genocidewatch.org . Website: www.genocidewatch.org