Jose Manuel Tesoro, Jakarta – As the sun sets in the towns and villages of East Java, men hurry home quicker than usual from their evening prayers. In some areas, a bell tolls to empty the streets of women and children. Windows will be shut and doors bolted till the next morning. In the darkness, wary men with swords or sickles patrol deserted roads. They are searching for the black-clad, masked men whom residents believe are responsible for the killings of over 150 locals. Since early August, the night here has been haunted by mysterious murders. The government cannot solve the slayings or put a stop to them. They have sent shivers of fear throughout the nation.
Jakarta residents began learning about the bloodshed in East Java in early October, by which time over 80 people had been reportedly murdered. The deaths began in Banyuwangi, a regency of 1.5 million people in Indonesia's second-most populated province. But in recent weeks, the shadow of terror has lengthened westward, with killings reported in more East Java towns as well as areas in Central and West Java. At first, the victims were accused of being dukun santet, or practitioners of black magic. Their purported power to hex and to heal has incurred the wrath of villagers. In the past seven years, there have been dozens of cases in which Banyuwangi residents have lynched a suspected sorcerer.
But this season of bloodshed has been highly unusual, not only in the number of victims but in the apparently well-organized nature of the killings. Eyewitnesses report bands of well-trained and equipped killers, whom they call "ninjas." They commit the murders themselves or incite neighbors to violence. Noha, 59, was one victim. About a month before his murder, his widow Sa'adah recalls, rumors of his dark powers started swirling. One evening as he was watching TV, the electricity went out. Noha then heard a harsh knock on the door. He answered it – and quickly succumbed to blows and knife thrusts from masked marauders. They left in a minivan and cars. "They never said a word," says Sa'adah. "They did their job very quickly." Noha's throat was cut, his head nearly separated from his body.
Some say a bid by the Banyuwangi regent in mid-September to collect the names of accused sorcerers in order to move them out of the area backfired. Various versions of the list started circulating – revealing new targets. Not only suspected deviants but devout Muslims and ordinary farmers, like Noha, became victims. The 30-million-strong Muslim mass organization Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), which has its strongest support in East Java, says many of the deaths were among its members. Ulamas in Muslim boarding schools report threats over the phone, or unsettling visits by strangers.
Several investigative teams, from NU, the National Commission on Human Rights and the non-government Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), have found few clues to the puzzle. National leaders give the impression they know more than they are revealing. On Oct. 18, while visiting Banyuwangi, armed forces chief Gen. Wiranto described the murders as "a result of conflict in the political elite." The day before, NU chief Abdurrahman Wahid indicated a conspiracy at the highest levels against his organization: "The masterminds are everywhere, in the cabinet and outside the formal political structure."
Small Business and Cooperatives Minister Adi Sasono shot back: "Do you believe that a cabinet member has time to carry out the killings of alleged sorcerers?" Sasono, who is a leader of the Indonesian Association of Muslim Intellectuals, had been mentioned as one of those Wahid had indicated. National police chief Lt.-Gen. Rusmanhadi maintains that the culprits could be Communists or their descendants. Their purported goal: revenge for the killings that began in 1965 by local militias, comprising NU elements, of members of what was once the world's second-largest communist party.
His may be an unlikely theory. But the police chief's reference to the 1960s is instructive. "Indonesia has a tradition of violence," says political analyst Frans Magnis-Suseno. Suharto's New Order, he believes, heightened the tendency. "People have been managed by co-opting, intimidating or repressing them," he says. "They have learned they can only win when they play by these rules." One example might be the May riots in Jakarta, which some believe Suharto son-in-law Lt.-Gen. Prabowo Subianto helped stir up to prepare his ascent to power, or at his father-in-law's bidding. More recently, paid mobs attacked a home owned by oil tycoon Arifin Panigoro, who had backed student activists, and the offices of the Legal Aid Foundation. On Oct. 11, Wahid decried the "criminal political means" that have become acceptable in Indonesia.
Is this what is happening in East Java? Some NU members think their organization is being baited. NU is a bastion of traditional, syncretic Islam and has close ties to the opposition camp of Megawati Sukarnoputri. That gives it potential foes among Islamists, the government, the army and Suharto loyalists. A source close to Wahid says the killings aim to provoke vengeance by NU, creating rural chaos. Hasyim Muzadi, NU's East Java chief, says that suspicious characters have assaulted people, then fled to churches or Chinese temples. "They want NU followers to attack," he says. The resulting conflict would discredit NU, or force it to face the army. "It's a psychological war," Muzadi says. "We will eventually disclose who is behind this. Our concern is that if this becomes a real war, we will not lose our energy and abandon our strategy." The NU has given the army until the end of November to solve the killings or it will finish them "in its own way." Says Magnis-Suseno: "Indonesians tend to suspect a puppeteer behind what happens. Often there is."
As law and order evaporates in East Java, villagers have become judge, jury – and executioner. The killings of accused sorcerers have been overtaken by assaults on suspected ninjas. Locals threaten to burn police stations unless suspects are handed over. In Malang, at least two suspected killers were beheaded. Three Madurese men were lynched after mobs found traditional daggers in their car trunk. Other suspects were beaten and burned alive. As the violence grows, clarity remains elusive – and the darkness impenetrable.
How one dukun cheated death
Eighty-four-year-old Mateha lives in a village near Banyuwangi town. He admits he is a dukun santet. One afternoon, Mateha was killing time on his front porch. Suddenly, two mini-trucks full of masked men stopped in front of his house. They pulled him out and, without saying a word, beat him and cut him with sickles. Then they dragged him to a nearby river and pushed his head under water several times before jumping back into their trucks.
Mateha did not die. After waiting until he was sure the men had left, he crawled up the river bank and returned home in the middle of the night. His family was happy, but not the group of "ninjas." Rumors about his survival quickly spread. Police took Mateha into protective custody, as they had hundreds of other people they considered targets for the marauders. But he was "bailed out" by someone who claimed to be a family member. Mateha was beaten by several men and strangled with a piece of wire. His body was thrown onto a muddy road after he had passed out. One of his assailants returned to strangle him some more for good measure. The man pushed Maheta's face into the mud until he stopped breathing.
Still, Mateha did not die. The next morning, his face black and blue, he walked home. Before the ninjas could get to him yet again, the police put him back in custody – and this time are keeping him there. Says a relaxed Mateha: "I thought I was finished, but it seems that my time had not come yet." Maybe his magic helped too.