Vaudine England, Jakarta – Beheadings and chopping attacks between indigenous Malays and migrant Madurese in the West Kalimantan city of Pontianak have left at least seven dead, prompting a curfew and shoot-to-kill orders for hundreds of police rushed in by Jakarta.
Reports from the trading town peopled by Chinese, Malays and Dayaks, alongside migrants from the island of Madura, say mobs are coursing through the city as police fail to intervene.
"The situation remains very tense, there are still people massing at the moment, carrying machetes, long knives, homemade guns and other weapons," said police sergeant Ino, from Pontianak. "We hope they will calm down."
"The killings still continue and most of them were quite horrific ... one person was burnt alive," another policeman said from Pontianak, 750km over the Java Sea north of Jakarta. Injured arriving at the city's three main hospitals have suffered amputations, hackings and deep flesh wounds.
In one reported incident, a victim was taken from a police post and hacked and stabbed to death over several minutes as police stood by. At one stage, he tried to get into a police van for protection, but was pushed away from the vehicle by police.
Gangs wielding machetes and sickles guarded their territory. Shops and businesses are closed and neighbourhoods have been burned by angry crowds, which also prevented firemen from putting out blazes. Dozens of stores at the Flamboyan market, all belonging to migrant settlers, have been torched.
"It appears that the Madurese in the camps are now arming themselves, ready to defend against attacks," a source working in the area said. About 14,000 Madurese displaced by earlier rampages are in seven camps dotted around the city, while up to 35,000 others are in relatives' homes.
Pontianak mayor Buchary A. Rahman set a curfew on Thursday night, banning outdoor activities and gatherings between 9pm and 4am. But police and troops have so far been unable to assert control. Their own roadblocks are being over-ridden, while Malays and Dayaks are harassing outsiders at barricades.
"Next time I'll intervene so that any dispute can be settled in the courts, not in the streets – where ethnic solidarity becomes the issue," Governor H. Aspar Aswin claimed. But soon after he ordered raids to confiscate weapons, warring groups continued a face-off on the streets.
Petrol stations were also closed and fuel has become scarce. Groups of Madurese were seen seeking refuge at the local police and military headquarters. The trigger for the rampage came on Wednesday, when a Madurese bus driver got into an argument with a Malay motorcyclist, leaving one man dead.
The ethnic violence explodes so viciously because of a background of economic and political competition. Though many Madurese have lived in West Kalimantan for two generations or more, their commercial aggression and perceived government perks have sparked rage among local groups.
Indigenous Malays and Dayaks, supported by the large Chinese community, insist they will not accept Madurese in the area or let them on to their land. This is why similar clashes broke out in 1997 and 1998, in which scores of Madurese migrants were hounded from their homes and hacked to death.
The local political scene is also a mess. The alliance of Chinese, Malays and Dayaks is calling for the removal of Governor Aswin. Daily demonstrations to this end at his office have become violent brawls, and the provincial legislature passed a vote of no-confidence in him last month.
At the same time, the Malaysian consulate in Pontianak has been attacked in a long-running row over the border between West Kalimantan and Malaysia's Sarawak. Claims about illegal logging by Malaysians or illegal smuggling of workers from Indonesia have marred relations and produced another focus to fuel local anger.