Indonesia's Unknown War and the Lineages of Violence in West Kalimantan

Abstract

The preeminent feature of the post-Suharto Indonesian state is its extensive and intensive regional violence. Few observers have been surprised by the locations in which the worst of this violence has erupted. Three of these were home to longstanding rebellions against Indonesian rule. Aceh, the last territory subdued by the Dutch and home to a long-term, albeit low-intensity, independence movement, is now site of daily arson attacks and armed clashes between the Indonesian military and the Free Aceh Movement. East Timor, brutally invaded and annexed by Indonesia in 1975, was the site of massive violence both before and after the August 1999 referendum, through which it achieved independence. Irian Jaya, invaded by the Indonesian military in 1962 and integrated into the republic via a sham UN-sponsored act of free choice in 1969, is now experiencing ceremonial raisings of the independence movement's Morning Star flag, demonstrations, and riots. Although the Maluku islands' history of separatism pre-dating the Suharto era differs from the histories of the other territories noted here, the Maluku islands have also been rocked by serious inter-ethnic /religious violence that has left thousands dead and many more displaced. In each of these regions political violence erupted where local aspirations for independence have been quashed by the harsh combination of military rule and economic developmentalism.