SUMMARY
The outbreak of ethnic violence between the Dayaks, Malay (Indonesia) on one side and the Madurese on the other can be traced to two different sets of events; one structural and one proximate. The structural cause was the effect of the large-scale migration program (the so-called transmigration system) implemented by the Government of Indonesia starting in the 1960s. The program, with an original aim to reduce overpopulation on islands such as Java and Madura by encouraging large-scale relocation to other, less-dense areas, leading to large scale population shifts and demographic changes in many areas. In some of these areas such as Central and Western Kalimantan, the traditional homeland of the Dayaks and Indonesian Malays, the effects of transmigration were compounded by economic and political marginalization by the central government through measures such as the opening of vast areas of forest to logging companies or agricultural use. This led to a significant accumulation of resentment by the mainly-rural Dayaks and poor, urban Malays against the relatively more prosperous, urban, Madurese immigrants.
The proximate trigger for the violence was the existence of an already running dispute between the Dayaks and the Madurese, a dispute that turned violent in 1997, causing over 300 victims as well as the significant displacement and substantial tension within West Kalimantan. Further, this dispute was amplified by a climate of lawlessness prevailing in Indonesia, as the country was suffering economic instability as an effect of the 1997 Asian crisis, and political turmoil as a result of the ousting of Suharto.
Both Dayak and Malay organizations and leaders claimed and stated that the main goal of the violence was the ethnic cleansing of the region through the expulsion of all the Madurese, first from the Sambas district, and subsequently from the entirety of Kalimantan. Whether this claim was representative of most participants in the violence is unknown, as no Dayak or Malay organization or group was representative of all participants in the violence.
The trigger that initiated the violence was a stabbing of a Malay bus driver by a Madurese in Tebas, in Sambas district, on 21 February 1999. This event led to a series of retaliations and counter-retaliations leading to substantial escalation of violence, as well as to an ad-hoc alliance between the Malays and Dayaks. Fighting was fairly asymmetrical, as the Malays and Dayaks were armed with superior weaponry, such as automatic weapons (many smuggled from Malaysia), compared to the Madurese, that fought mainly by using artisanal rifles and machetes. While the Madurese were more loosely organized, the Dayaks and Malays did significant coordination and planning of their attacks, including transporting troops to various locations of clashes, and setting up an ad-hoc recognition system. As such, fighting took place around the Sambas District of West Kalimantan, with multiple Madurese communities being attacked and displaced.
Violence subdued with the intervention of the Indonesian military, on 24 March 1999. Following the intervention, the Indonesian authorities removed most Madurese from the Sambas district, either to the capital, Pontianak, or to various places in Madura and Java. By May, the Sambas district was nearly void of Madurese. No subsequent clashes were noted in the area – however, the violence taking place in 1999 is frequently described as being a prelude for another series of communal violence in Kalimantan, this time taking place in Central Kalimantan between the Dayaks and Madurese in 2001.
This dyad covers only covers events taking place in Western Kalimantan in 1999. Events taking place in Western Kalimantan in 1997 as well as those taking place in Central Kalimantan in 2001 are covered in the database as part of the Dayak – Madurese conflict.
The non-state conflict between the Dayaks, Malay (Indonesia) and the Madurese is first included in UCDP data in 1999. In March of that year, violence between the warring parties had resulted in over 25 battle-related deaths.
