Riots – Communal Violence

Refugee Review Tribunal AUSTRALIA RRT RESEARCH RESPONSE Research Response Number: IDN30556 Country: Indonesia Date: 15 September 2006 Keywords: IDN30556 – Indonesia – Tangerang – Riots – Communal violence This response was prepared by the Country Research Section of the Refugee Review Tribunal (RRT) after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the RRT within time constraints. This response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum. Questions 1. Please advise the location of Pontianak and Tangerang. 2. Please advise if there is any reference to riots, looting, etc. in Tangerang in June 1999, December 2003 and November 2004. 3. Are there further references to looting or rioting in Tangerang on other occasions since 1995? 4. Please provide information about ethnic and/or racial tensions in this area, and also in Indonesia generally. RESPONSE 1. Please advise me of the location of Pontianak and Tangerang. Pontianak is located in the province of West Kalimantan and is the provincial capital (‘Maps and Geographic information – Indonesia’ January 2004, United Nations website http://www.un.org/Depts/Cartographic/map/profile/indonesi.pdf#search=%22map%20of%20 indonesia%22 – Accessed 12 September – Attachment 1). Tangerang is a large city located about 20km west of the national capital Jakarta. It is in the province of Banten in West Java1 (‘Tangerang’ (undated), Wikipedia website http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tangerang – Accessed 12 September 2006 – Attachment 2). 1 Users should be aware that Wikipedia is a Web-based free-content encylopaedia which is written collaboratively by volunteers. The Research Service recommends that users of Wikipedia familiarise themselves with the regulatory practices which Wikipedia employs as a preventative measure against vandalism, bias and inaccuracy. For more information, see the recommended background reading available in the Wikipedia Topical Information Package. 2. Please advise if there is any reference to riots/looting/etc in Tangerang in June 1999, December 2003 and November 2004. No reports of rioting or the looting of shops in Tangerang in June 1999, December 2003, or November 2004 were found in the sources consulted. 3. Are there further references to looting/rioting in Tangerang on other occasions since 1995? Three reports were found referring to relatively small riots and local unrest occurring in Tangerang between 1996 and 1997. • A riot occurred in September 1996 in which the police office of the Kronjo sub- precinct in Tangerang was damaged by stones thrown by hundreds of residents angry at suspected new regulations on the reciting of prayers in the early morning (‘Sacked officer questioned over Tangerang riot’ 1996, The Jakarta Post, 30 September – Attachment 3). • Three Christian churches in Tangerang were described as being “stoned by mass” on 23 May 1997 by the Indonesian Christian Communication forum (Tahalele, Dr Paul ‘Church and Human Rights Reports in Indonesia as at 30 November 1998’, Indonesia Christian Communication Forum, Fellowship of Indonesian Christians in America (FICANET) website, p13 http://www.fica.org/hr/ChurchPersecution/nov516.pdf – Accessed 14 September 2006 – Attachment 4). • In December 1997, food stalls of Pondok Jaya in Pondok Aren, Tangerang, were damaged and burned by about 300 people in the belief they were being used for prostitution and the selling of alcohol (‘Residents destroy, burn food stalls’ 1997, The Jakarta Post, 22 December – Attachment 5). The major unrest and riots across Indonesia associated with the 1997 Asian financial crisis and the 1998 re-election of President Suharto did not spare Tangerang. A report of the May 1998 riots across Indonesia includes the following references to Tangerang: …Jakarta’s death toll was initially put at 499 (army spokesperson, 17 May), then at 293 (police spokesperson, 23 May). A team led by the well-known Jesuit Sandyawan Sumardi said on 18 May that 1188 had died in Jakarta and Tangerang, including deaths by shooting and beating. The same report also mentioned Chinese being stripped and raped by rioters. Most deaths were of looters trapped in burning supermarkets. …Rioting mostly spreads westward [from Jakarta] toward and into Tangerang – past the international airport. A hospital is attacked, as are two churches in Tangerang. Cars are stopped on tollways and checked for Chinese – many cars are put to the torch on the tollway, whose operators are soon told to abandon their post. Even though no one is collecting fees, the toll roads are soon deserted. Tens of thousands of rioters far outnumber the security forces, who mostly stay away from trouble rather than risk defeat or a bloody massacre. The rich flee to luxury hotels at the airport, Jalan Thamrin in the city heart, in Jalan Sudirman and at Ancol. Tangerang to Jakarta’s west, like Bekasi to its east (where rioting breaks out the next day) is Jakarta’s industrial belt. Hundreds of labour-intensive, temporary factories erected by foreign capital looking for cheap labour and a quick return on investment have become magnets for an urban proletariat. These are the people worst affected by the economic crisis – bearing the brunt of the huge increase in unemployment (an additional 13 million this year alone?) (‘The May riots’ 1998, Inside Indonesia online edition, 29 May http://www.serve.com/inside/digest/dig63.htm – Accessed 22 June 2006 – Attachment 6). The only other account found of rioting in Tangerang occurred in October 2002. About 300 residents armed with stones, machetes, sickles and wooden clubs attacked homes in the Dakwah Islam Indonesia (LDII) congregation complex in the Munjul subdistrict, Cisoka district of Tangerang. Reference to a similar attack on the same complex is also reported in the article for earlier in the month. The motivation given for the riot was the teaching of misleading religious tenets to members of the congregation (‘Residents attack LDII complex’ 2002, The Jakarta Post 30, October – Attachment 7). 4. Please provide information about ethnic/racial tensions in this area, and also in Indonesia generally. As Tangerang is located in West Java, information was first sought on the racial and ethnic tensions in this part of Indonesia. Several reports of ethnic/racial tension were found for the period 1995 to 2004. Evidence of racial and ethnic tensions in west Java mainly focuses on ethnic Chinese. The earliest report dates from October-November 1995 and occurred in the district of Purwakarta, south east of Jakarta. A riot of “more than 20 000 people” was sparked off when a Muslim girl was allegedly slapped by her ethnic Chinese employees and owner of the shop for stealing chocolates. Twenty shops, cars and homes were seriously damaged (‘Chronology for Chinese in Indonesia 1990 – April 1999’, Centre for International Development and Conflict Management, University of Maryland website http://www.cidcm.umd.edu/inscr/mar/chronology.asp?groupId=85003 – Accessed 12 September 2006 – Attachment 9; Suh, S. & Loveard, K. 1997, ‘Class struggle: Can economic progress solve the recent ethnic and religious unrest?’ 24 January, Asiaweek, http://www.pathfinder.com/asiaweek/97/0124/nat3.html – Accessed 13 September 2006 – Attachment 10). One year later in December 1996, in Taskimalaya city south east of Purwakarta, police action against three Muslim figures resulted in anti-Christian and anti-Chinese violence. Several people were killed and property damage caused by the riot was estimated to come to $34 million (Suh, S. & Loveard, K. 1997, ‘Class struggle: Can economic progress solve the recent ethnic and religious unrest?’ 24 January, Asiaweek, http://www.pathfinder.com/asiaweek/97/0124/nat3.html – Accessed 13 September 2006 – Attachment 10). In December 1997, in a village “about 20 kilometres (12.5 miles) west of the capital, Jakarta”, an angry mob of 300 people destroyed two houses used as churches and said to be being used by “many” ethnic Chinese (‘Indonesian church damaged by 300 rioters’ 1997, Associated Press Newswires, 26 December – Attachment 11). North of Tasikmalaya, in Jatiwangi, the destruction of houses and Chinese shops is reported in a Time cover story for February 1998. The riot was sparked by the increase in motor vehicle parts. The article also refers to several other recent riots and to the heightened state of alarm felt by ethnic Chinese around 1998: In the past month alone, anti-Chinese riots have erupted in dozens of cities and towns across the scattered archipelago…Several riots in recent years have left dozens of churches, houses and shops destroyed by rampaging Indonesians. “Racial hatred has existed before,” says Alengkong, an ethnic-Chinese pastor in Jember, West Java, who keeps a packed bag at home with valuables and important documents in case he needs suddenly to flee. “We didn’t feel too worried up until now.” (Colmey, J. 1998, ‘The Eternally blamed’ 23 February, Time, vol. 151, no.7, Time.com website http://www.time.com/time/magazine/1998/int/980223/box1.html – Accessed 13 September 2006 – Attachment 12). The US Department of State human rights reports for 1997 and 1998 both refer to West Java. The first refers to attacks on churches and riots sparked by a small incident involving a Chinese woman and Muslim youth in Rengesdenglok, a small town east of Jakarta: There were several instances of mob violence that included attacks on churches, other religious facilities, and Chinese-owned businesses. Rioting and church

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