3 - 5 JULY 2000
BERLIN, GERMANY
Conflicts and Violence in Indonesia
From 3 to 5 July 2000 the Institute for Southeast Asian Studies, at Humboldt University in Berlin organized an international conference on the subject Conflict and Violence in Indonesia. Fifteen guests from Indonesia, Australia, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, and Sweden and about sixty scientists and students from Germany participated. Persistent violent conflicts since the fall of Soeharto are indubitably a reason why the conference attracted such great interest. There were 26 contributions that can be divided into four main topics, namely general considerations, case studies, cultural aspects of violence, and conflict regulation.
By INGRID WESSEL AND GEORGIA WIMHÖFER
The Head of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (KONTRAS), Munir (Indonesia), analysed the main factors that have triggered violence under the New Order and subsequent governments and made a distinction between different types of state violence and collective violence. Freek Colombijn (the Netherlands) looked at the specifics of violence in Indonesia. He linked the role of cultural and social organizations with general explanations of violence and dealt with amok and headhunting as cultural specifics, but also listed forms of violence that are of a general character and not limited to Indonesia. John Sidel (United Kingdom) explained mass violence at the end of the twentieth century in terms of a 'moral economy', considering various factors such as state intervention, religion, and a population disadvantaged in the fields of economy and education. Ingrid Wessel (Berlin) dealt with state violence under the New Order during the 1990s, characterizing Soeharto's rule as based on direct and indirect forms of violence, underlining the rule of the military and militias in suppressing the oppostion. Andreas Ufen (Hamburg) described the New Order as a polycratic system of various dominant groups. Robert Cribb (Australia) questioned the seriousness of the statistics of victims of mass murder under the New Order (1965) and of the violence in East Timor, demanding a careful treatment of the estimated numbers of victims.Regional scenarios of violence were the second main focus of this conference. George Aditjondro (Indonesia/ Australia) analysed the political economy on the Moluccas linking it to the political elite in Jakarta which is said to instrumentalize ethno-religious tensions in the Moluccas. Susanne Schröter (Mainz) focused on the emergence of a Christian identity in Eastern Indonesia. Benny Giay (Indonesia) described the Indonesian politics of violence imposed on West Papua to explain the independence movement in this region. Ariffadillah (Indonesia/Cologne) spoke on recent developments in Aceh where an agreement between the government and the Free Aceh Movement has not succeeded in putting a stop to violent military attacks. Against the background of developments in West Kalimantan from 1967 to 1999, Mary Somers Heidhues (Berlin) described the violent clashes between Dayaks and Madurese in 1997. Peter Carey (United Kingdom) reported on interviews that he had conducted with traumatized female refugees from East Timor in Portugal.
Georgia Wimhöfer (Berlin) looked at the role of students in 1998 and pointed out their weaknesses and strengths. Kees van Dijk (the Netherlands) elaborated on the creation of security groups (Satgas) after Soeharto's resignation. Yusiu Liem (Cologne) evaluated 33 years of Soeharto policies towards the Chinese minority. Farish Noor (Malaysia/Berlin) discussed conflicts between the Malaysian government and the Islamic opposition in 1997-1999.
Cultural aspects
Dias Pradadimara (Indonesia) spoke about the Indonesian understanding of spontaneous collective violence in the streets between 1997 and 1999. He concluded that these deeds were initially interpreted as 'uncontrolled behaviour', later as 'understandable acts' born of economic necessity, and were recently described as 'acts of purification' of Islam and of a 'tainted Indonesian culture', thus justifying violence. Nils Bubandt (Denmark) examined violence in the North Moluccas from various angles, including the way it is depicted in the media, the renaissance or the jago tradition (local leaders), the dominant position of religion in identifying communities, and the interpretation of violence as a sign of an approaching apocalypse.
Anna Greta Nilsson Hoadley (Sweden) showed that Indonesian literature had brought up violations of human rights, even though the official Indonesian reading of history ommitted or falsified facts concerning state violence in the aftermath of 1965/66. Tanja Hohe (Münster/Darwin) evaluated the reception of the UN mission to East Timor by the local population. Urte Undine Froemming (Berlin) characterized the symbolic significance of volcanoes that has been perceived and interpreted in different ways by the Indonesian government and by the opposition.
Anja Jetschke (Freiburg) spoke on the general development of human rights in Indonesia since the beginning of the 1990s. Paulo Gorjao (Belgium) compared developments in South Africa and Indonesia, concluding that in Indonesia, too, a Truth and Reconciliation Commission could help to overcome crimes of the past and consolidate democracy.
Most of the presentations dealt with violence in Indonesia in the recent past and at the present time. The different approaches to the topic of violence in Indonesia led to a very complex picture. Most papers will be published in English language by Abera, Hamburg, probably by the end of the year 2000. *
Ingrid Wessel and Georgia Wimhöfer, Humboldt University Berlin.
E-mails: ingrid.wessel@rz.hu-berlin.de and georgia.wimhoefer@rz.hu-berlin.de