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Kalimantan
Impacts on Human Security |
Internally Displaced Persons
While hundreds of Madurese were murdered in the fighting, most did manage to escape. Apart from 20,000 Madurese remaining in the city of Pangkalabun, Central Kalimantan no longer has any Madurese inhabitants. However, Madurese who fled the fighting in Central and West Kalimantan are still living as refugees in West Kalimantan, East Java and Madura Island and it appears they will not be able to return to their homes anytime soon. It is not clear where or when they will be relocated.
As of July 2001, there were an estimated 108,000 Madurese displaced from Sampit currently sheltering in various towns in East Java. The city of Sampang alone currently houses as many as 60,000 IDPs. Most of the Madurese refugees in East Java have been absorbed into local homes. However, this hospitality is becoming a heavy burden on locals since national and provincial assistance has been meager. As the refugees are quickly using up their resources, local villagers are beginning to resent their presence. Moreover, the future is uncertain for many of these refugees. Many of them worked as traders in Sampit, and are now unemployed. They left their homes and jobs in Central Kalimantan and many arrived in East Java with only the clothes they were wearing.
In West Kalimantan, 40,000 of the approximately 60,000 refugees who fled Sambas in 1999 are still living in temporary camps in Pontianak, the capital of West Kalimantan. Refugees are living in makeshift barracks and public buildings, including sports centers. Incidents of violence have occasionally broken out between the refugees and Dayak and Malay residents of Pontianak. As of September 2001, the government had relocated around 7,000 families to the resettlement areas of Sei Asan and Tebang Kacang (about 30 miles south of Pontianak), following threats from Dayak of further bloodshed. Leaders of the Dayak and Malay communities have called for the Madurese IDPs to leave Pontianak by December 2001. The government is trying to persuade the IDPs to join voluntary relocation programs, but thus far it has been largely unsuccessful.
Around 11,000 IDPs from Sampit and Palangkaraya in Central Kalimantan are now living in Madura, an island off the east coast of Java. The IDPs are living with family members in Madura, particularly in the Sepulu sub-district and in Kampis, as family ties in the region go back for generations. Many homes are sheltering 50 people, which is more than their sanitation facilities can support. Food needs are being met through community donations and the host families, along with small contributions from the Indonesian government. Although many of the Madurese host families are wealthy by Indonesian standards, their support of many IDPs is not sustainable indefinitely . Despite the relatively well-off nature of IDPs in Madura, some children are severely malnourished and humanitarian organizations including World Vision have set up therapeutic feeding centers for these children. The most significant problem for Madurese IDPs in Madura, however, is not meeting basic needs, but rather psychological trauma. Most resist permanent resettlement in Madura and wish to return to Kalimantan.
On June 4-7, the predominately Dayak Kalimantan People’s Congress, held a session to discuss whether the refugees should be allowed to return to Central Kalimantan. It was decided that priority would be given only to Madurese born in Central Kalimantan who hold permanent jobs and property in the province. They would also have to apologize to the Dayak for the recent ethnic conflict. The People's Congress has recommended that the Madurese wait between 5 and 25 years before returning to Central Kalimantan, as many Dayak are still hostile to the re-entry of the Madurese. As of October 2001, government leaders in Kalimantan were still working on a demography bylaw that would enable the refugees to return and to live in safety. This regulation would outline the rights and obligations of residents of Kalimantan regardless of their ethnic background. For now, in Kotawaringin Timur, Kapuas and Palangkaraya, the three districts worst hit by the ethnic violence, it is not yet safe for the refugees to return.
Humanitarian organizations, the local community, and the local government are meeting the immediate humanitarian needs of the IDPs, including water/sanitation, health, food security, basic shelter, and hygiene needs. Several humanitarian organizations have been providing assistance to the IDPs from the ethnic conflict in Kalimantan. Medicins sans Frontière has had small-scale operations in Pontianak since 1999 and has concentrated mainly on water and sanitation and health. Catholic Relief Services (CRS) is planning long-term work such as agricultural, health and peace building projects if relocation efforts within Kalimantan are successful. CRS has a campaign of peace promotion in the country and is collaborating with the local interreligious forum including the Muslim organization Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), to promote its peace building efforts. World Vision’s Kalimantan Emergency Response (KER) has been monitoring the health status of displaced Madurese children and has also planned a distribution plan of food packages for malnourished children’s families. Save the Children (SC-UK) has also been present in Pontianak working to prevent the separation of children from their parents and has been running health promotion programs focused on the children in the camps.
For more information, see:
Global IDP Database, IDPs in Indonesia and East Timor,
World Food Programme,
Catholic Relief Services (CRS), Indonesia Emergency Updated Jul 2001,
OCHA Situation Report on Central Kalimantan, No. 3, March 2, 2001,
Mira Renata, World Vision, Displaced Madurese evacuated from Pontianak: World Vision to distribute food aid,
Environment
Another issue of concern to human security in Kalimantan is the environment. Forest fires and extensive logging have degraded the environment and have affected the health of the people in the region.
Forest Fires and Logging: Around 200,000 hectares of forest are licensed to be logged each year. Further, large areas of forest have been destroyed to make way for palm oil plantations. West Kalimantan has largely been deforested as the result of commercial and illegal logging, a traditional system of slash-and-burn cultivation, gold mining and the development of large oil-palm estates. Irresponsible land clearing and logging has contributed in part to uncontrolled forest fires in Kalimantan. In 1997 to1998, a series of devastating fires, triggered by El Nino destroyed about 5.2 million hectares of forests.
Chronic forest fires in West and Central Kalimantan have led to an enveloping blanket of smoke and haze over the provinces. The fires have reoccurred each year as the result of land-clearing activities for palm oil plantations and local agriculture. In 2001, the prolonged dry season has contributed to the problem. Lowered water tables in peat forests have significantly increased their risk of catching fire. The haze has been linked to a dramatic increase in respiratory disease and health officials have encouraged the population to wear facemasks when out of doors.
For more information, see:
After the Fires in East Kalimantan/Indonesia – Forest Policy Challenged to Support Sustainable Forest Management, IFFN No. 23, December 2000, 8-12.
Christian Gonner. Conflicts and Fire Causes in a Sub-District of Kutai, East-Kalimantan, Indonesia,
World Wildlife Fund
World Wildlife Fund: Indonesia Forest Fires Project
Charles Victor Barber and James Schweithelm. Trial by Fire, Forest Fires and Forestry Policy in Indonesia’s Era of Crisis and Reform,
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