Sambas riots

Part of post-Suharto era

Location of the district (kabupaten) within the province of West Kalimantan on the island of Borneo.

Date

1999

Location

Sambas Regency, West Kalimantan, Indonesia

Parties

Malay rioters
Dayak rioters

Madurese rioters

TNI
POLRI

Casualties and losses

3000 dead

The Sambas riots were an outbreak of inter-ethnic violence in Indonesia, in 1999 in the regency of Sambas, West Kalimantan Province and involved the Madurese on one side and an alliance of the indigenous Dayak people and Sambas Malays on the other. The Madurese and Dayak were inspired by their respective traditions of violence: carok for the Madurese and ngayau or headhunting for the Dayak. The Dayak attempt to settle disputes first by means of a peaceful agreement and only practice "ngayau" when they are violently attacked, while the Madurese practice "carok" as a first measure. In this case, the Madurese aggressively murdered some Dayak by using a sickle (celurit), so the Dayak responded out of self-defense. As Malays, the Sambas do not have a tradition of violence but allied with the Dayak due harassment of the migrant Madurese over the course of many decades.

Background

The Sambas riots in 1999 were not an isolated incident, as there had been previous incidents of violence between the Dayaks and the Madurese. The last major conflict occurred between December 1996 and January 1997, and resulted in more than 600 deaths. The Madurese first arrived in Borneo in 1930 under the transmigration program initiated by the Dutch colonial administration, and continued by the Indonesian government.

Massacres

After the Madurese massacred the Sambas Malays in Parit Setia while exiting the local mosque after performing the Muslim Aid al-Adha prayer, the Sambas Malays lost all patience with the harassment and murdering on the part of the Madurese. They thus joined forces with the Dayaks to resist the attacks of the Madurese in the Sambas district. Up to 3,000 Madurese were killed, and the Indonesian government did little to stop the violence. Some of the Indonesian soldiers that were sent to quell the riots were attacked by the Sambas Malays and Dayaks due to their support for the Madurese.

Further massacres

In 2001, another conflict broke out between the Madurese and Dayak that resulted in hundreds of deaths. It became known as the Sampit conflict.

References

"Indonesia: The Violence in Central Kalimantan (Borneo)". Human Rights Watch. February 28, 2001. Retrieved August 13, 2008.
Tri Nuke Pudjiastuti (June 2002). "Immigration and Conflict in Indonesia" (PDF). IUSSP Regional Population Conference, Bangkok. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 11, 2010. Retrieved August 13, 2008.
Professor Timo Kivimaki (December 28, 2012). Can Peace Research Make Peace?: Lessons in Academic Diplomacy. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. p. 24. ISBN 978-1-4094-7188-2. Retrieved March 20, 2014.
"Violence in Indonesian Borneo Spurs the Relocation of Ethnic Madurese". Cultural Survival. April 2010. Retrieved March 17, 2014.
indahnesia.com. "The Sampit conflict - People - The Madurese and the Dayak - Discover Indonesia Online". indahnesia.com. Retrieved March 17, 2014.
Braithwaite, John; Braithwaite, Valerie; Cookson, Michael; Dunn, Leah (2010). Anomie and Violence: Non-truth and Reconciliation in Indonesian Peacebuilding. ANU E Press. p. 299. ISBN 978-1-921666-23-0. Retrieved March 20, 2014.
Hedman, Eva-Lotta E. (2008). Conflict, Violence, and Displacement in Indonesia. SEAP Publications. p. 73. ISBN 978-0-87727-745-3. Retrieved March 20, 2014.
Bowen, John Richard (May 29, 2003). Islam, Law, and Equality in Indonesia: An Anthropology of Public Reasoning. Cambridge University Press. p. 62. ISBN 978-0-521-53189-4. Retrieved March 20, 2014.
Dawis, Aimee (2009). The Chinese of Indonesia and Their Search for Identity: The Relationship Between Collective Memory and the Media. Cambria Press. p. 90. ISBN 978-1-60497-606-9. Retrieved March 20, 2014.

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