John Aglionby, Jakarta – Mobs of angry Balinese have been rampaging through the usually tranquil beach resort of Kuta this week – an area previously thought to be impervious to the tensions tearing apart the social fabric elsewhere in Indonesia.

The spread of the trouble to this area threatens not only the safety of local people but also Bali's tourism earnings.

Several hundred men have burned or destroyed hundreds of Kuta businesses owned by immigrants from the neighbouring island of Java.

Early on Thursday morning they made huge bonfires from surfboards, beach umbrellas and foodstalls, then dumped the charred remains in the breakers beloved of surfers the world over.

"We have no idea why they did it," said Aryianto Kosasih, a Javanese tattoo artist, as he surveyed the remains of his kiosk. "We hadn't done anything to annoy them."

Locals disagree. "The migrants don't respect local customs and don't even try to fit in with our way of life," said Oka Gede, a Balinese restaurant manager. "They've had it coming to them for a long time."

No one has been killed or seriously injured in the Kuta unrest. But the events echo those in half a dozen other provinces this year, which have left 600 people dead.

There is no sign of the widespread social unrest being brought under control. As the state's grip on society weakens after the fall from power of the longtime dictator Suharto 11 months ago, and the Asian economic crisis continues to crush the country's commerce, Indonesians are increasingly taking the law into their own hands.

"It's been beneath the surface for so long, and now you have a central government with no legitimacy or authority. So any spark can set it off," said Jusuf Wanandi, head of Jakarta's Centre for Strategic and International Studies.

In West Kalimantan, Borneo, and in Maluku, famous for its spice islands, there is similar tension between locals and migrants.

In the Sambas district of West Kalimantan hundreds of migrants from the island of Madura have been massacred and their homes burned. Tens of thousands of refugees are waiting to be resettled, but the government's choice for this of two small islands off the mainland is roundly condemned by human rights organisations. In Maluku, Muslim migrants have fought back against the Christian locals, carrying out ferocious revenge killings. Much of the provincial capital, Ambon, looks as if it has been heavily bombed. But ethnic-religious tension is one of several causes of unrest in an archipelago of 17,500 islands and more than 350 ethnic groups. Dissatisfaction in out lying provinces over the central government's pillaging of oil, gas, timber and minerals is mounting.

In Riau, south-west of Singapore on the island of Sumatra and arguably the richest area in Indonesia, people are calling for independence. Led by students and university lecturers, protesters have become so disenchanted with Jakarta that they see independence as the best way forward.

This is a stance people in Aceh, on the north-western tip of Sumatra, and Irian Jaya, the western half of New Guinea, have taken for decades, and particularly in the past 10 years when the Indonesian army's repression has reached unprecedented heights of barbarity. Students in the Aceh town of Lhokseumawe have intensified their demands for a referendum in the past two weeks.

"The anti-Jakarta feeling is now so strong in Aceh," a western aid worker said, "that the only places where the Indonesian flag is flying are army bases and government offices."

Java, the heartland of Indonesia, has not been immune to the chaos. Several bombs, thought to have been planted by radical Muslim groups, have been set off in the capital, and a mysterious killing spree has begun in the Ciamis area.

Munir, head of the Commission of Missing Persons and Victims of Violence, said the Ciamis carnage, in which more than 100 people have been killed and left at the side of roads, was being perpetrated by groups loyal to Mr Suharto.

Their motivation, Mr Munir said, was a desire to disrupt the general election on June 7. "They fear a new reform government will prosecute them seriously," he said.

The current president, BJ Habibie, has made only half-hearted attempts to investigate allegations of corruption and abuse of power made against his former mentor.

Foreign observers fear the military might also be playing a role. "Their once-powerful position is being steadily eroded," one diplomat said. "They are now being seen as part of the problem, not part of the solution."

The army has been accused of being deliberately slow in responding to outbreaks of violence. "There are two camps in Indonesia," the diplomat said. "People who want the election to succeed and those who want it to fail. It is still not certain that the former group will emerge victorious."