The economic crisis awakened all the underlying ethnic, religious and social tensions of Indonesian Borneo. Hundreds were killed in an explosion of ethnic violence in Kalimantan adding to the hundreds killed in religious confrontations on other islands.
Aris had warned that the violence was expected to increase in the run up to the parliamentary elections and it would be necessary to wind up the fieldwork for the season in the hope that a new campaign could be set up when the situation improved. The crisis was the worse in thirty years with the inevitable collapse of the Suharto regime that had ruled over the country for thirty two years.
In the capital, Jakarta, the trouble was essentially political but as time wore on ethnic violence rose to the surface as the economic crisis forced prices to rocket with widespread unemployment. The wealthy ethnic Chinese minority in the north and other districts of the city were once again victims targeted my roving mobs.
Though the core of the most serious violence lay in the Moluccas, the Spice Islands, where the mixed population composed of Christians, Moslems and animists was the source of tension, rioting and violence had sprung up in Kalimantan as underlying tension erupted into pitched battles between indigenous Dayaks and the recently arrived transmigrants from Java and Madura who were bitterly resented by local tribes people.
Pontianak had long been the centre of reoccurring ethnic violence with its mixed population Dayaks, ethnic Chinese and immigrants from Madura.
It was dark when they were driven to their hotel, it was just after seven, the city should have been bustling with the evening markets, it was silent, too silent, and the tension in the air was tangible.
They agreed to meet in the dining room at eight after they had cleaned up. Ennis stuffed his wet dirty clothes into a plastic laundry bag and after taking out a clean set of clothes relaxed under a hot shower. As he dried off was drying off he heard an urgent knocking on the room door. It was Aris, his face was white.
‘What’s happening?’
‘There’s a mob in the main street. They’re screaming, “Kill the Chinese! Eat the pigs! Let’s have a party!”’ He was trembling. ‘They’ve forced their way into the hotel, everybody’s running upstairs.’
They locked the door of the room, it was impossible to escape. They could hear banging at the room doors along the corridors and women screaming.
They waited half and hour until the noise receded then decided to get out taking Pierre who was in the next room with them leaving by the emergency staircase to the car park where they found the driver cowering in the Toyota. Aris pushed him out and grabbed the wheel as the others pilled in.
He accelerated into the street where the mob had caught a young Chinese girl. They waved their machetes menacingly when Ennis shouted at them, there were too many of them and they were running wild.
Further along the street they were burning and looting shops and houses owned by Chinese. Aris ducked down so he would not be seen and put his foot down on the accelerator, the Toyota zigzagging as it skidded through the mob who lashed out at them with whatever they had in their hands.
In the hotel Ennis had seen Singapore television report that that two thousand had died in Jakarta, most of them Muslims, not ethnic Chinese, though swathes of central Jakarta’s Chinatown district were destroyed stores and banks belonging to Chinese were looted and burned. Muslim shop owners had painted with the word ‘pribumi’ on their doors to indicate there were ethnic Indonesian and Muslim.
Aris knowing only the centre of Pontianak was soon lost in the dark streets and seemed to be turning in circles. He then recognised one of the roads that led to the military barracks not far from the city centre. They passed still-smouldering buildings, where they saw charred corpses laying twisted on the pavement amongst piles of burning debris, all that remained of certain was a blackened ribcage and skull in the piles of ash.
More than half of Indonesia’s population of more than two hundred and twenty million lived on the islands of Java, Madura, Bali and Lombok. Under the Suharto government transmigration program, originally started in 1905 under the Dutch, had been introduced to ease the population pressure on those islands by moving entire villages to isolated areas in Sumatra, Kalimantan and Irian Jaya.
The Dayaks of Borneo were traditionally animists or Christians who ate pork and owned dogs, which the transmigrants from the Island of Madura being strict Muslims objected to. The Madurese, who had arrived in the sixties and seventies, were known for violence and strong family bonds in their closely knit communities.
The troubles had commenced when Dayaks had attacked the Madurese immigrants in isolated areas slaughtering hundreds of people in a surge of bloody violence. Thousands have been evacuated to the larger towns, but the military and police were powerless to protect them with the result that new violence erupted as the sought to flee by boat from Pontianak.
They were hunted down and many killed, beheaded by the Dayaks who resorting to their ancient traditions of headhunting proudly displaying their trophies mounted on spikes that they carried through the streets on motorbikes.
‘It’s extraordinary to see headhunting skills alive one hundred years after it was outlawed by their chiefs,’ said Pierre with amused disdain for the horror.
The barracks were guarded by severe looking soldiers their arms ready to fire at the least provocation. A heated conversation ensued and when General Hartarto’s name was invoked by Aris were they pointed in the direction of the airport.
On the outskirts of the city the poorer districts they speed through homes and buildings had been transformed into piles of ash, twisted blackened pieces of corrugated iron, the road was scattered with smashed household goods and broken glass.
Access to the airport terminal was protected by a barrier and an army unit with several armoured vehicles. After a summary inspection of their papers they were waved, Aris had produced from nowhere a Singaporean passport. ‘Just in case,’ he sniggered.
There were a great number of ethnic Chinese and a few Europeans, amongst whom they spotted Collin Williams cheerfully puffing at a cigarette studying the scene at his side was and Zybnek Jaros.
‘We took a taxis, $200!’ Collin said pleased with his exploit.
Most of the crowd had camped down on the floor for a long night, children cried softly as vendors made they way amongst them selling food and drink.
Aris returned with an army officer after having disappeared for almost half an hour. ‘We’ve got a ride on an Army C5 to Jakarta get your things together.’
They followed him and the officer without question out onto the tarmac where he paused to exchange a few words with a high ranking officer, Aris pointed to Pierre and the officer inspected him strangely. They walked to the huge plane and up the ramp where they joined the other passengers who sat patiently on the floor of the cavernous C5 transporter. After some time the ramp was finally closed and the plane taxied to the runway ready for take off to Jakarta, a two hour flight.
Once in the air Aris explained that it was Hartarto who had got them onto the flight, “He owed me a favour…it was funny though, he asked me who Pierre was!”
The found another couple of the expedition staff who had made it to Pontianak by road who recounted his experiences of the previous days.
‘We were passing by a field and saw a group of boys playing football…the ball was the head of a man. In one of the markets a man was standing on a wooden crate holding up a decapitated head, he pulled entrails from the neck and another man put a cigarette in its lips.’
‘It’s a state of complete fucking anarchy.’
‘They believe they’ll get the enemy’s strength by eating his liver and chopping off the head,’ said Aris.
‘When we arrived at the airport yesterday, there was an impressive military presence, now most of them seem to have scappered!’
‘With the Suharto regime, the government ruled these areas with
an iron fist. Any conflicts that raised ethnic or even religious conflict, was immediately put down by the military that had a strong grip on these areas.’
‘Since the crisis it’s chaos. The lid’s been really blown off now.’
‘Yeah, Kalimantan’s a free-for-all.’
‘The problem is that the military doesn’t seem to have a clear policy for dealing the violence. They’ve been criticized for their heavy-handed approach in other provinces,” Aris said, “and the military, police and local government officials don’t think that things are not going to return to normal very quickly.’