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 burnings occurred in Rengesdengklok, West Java in January, in which five churches were destroyed by mob violence. The incident was sparked after a confrontation between a Chinese woman and local Muslim youths. The rioting that followed caused widespread damage to churches. Two Buddhist temples were also damaged or burned (U.S. Department of State 1998, Indonesia Report on Human Rights Practices for 1997, January 30 http://www.fas.org/irp/world/indonesia/indonesia-1997.htm – Attachment 13).

The US department of State report for 1998 refers to tensions between Muslims and ethnic Chinese as playing a role in the attacks on churches in towns east and southeast of Jakarta in the month prior to the major riots of May 1998:

During massive riots in mid-May, mobs targeted the ethnic Chinese community, which was not protected by the authorities. Following the riots, allegations of mass rape of ethnic Chinese women were made, forcing the Government to establish a fact-finding team to investigate the riots and rapes. The team found that elements of the military had been involved in the riots, some of which were deliberately provoked. It also verified 66 rapes of women, the majority of whom were Sino-Indonesian, as well as numerous other acts of violence against women. The armed forces publicly acknowledged several areas of past human rights violations and launched still ongoing investigations into some of the worst violations.

…On February 13 [1998], serious anti-Christian and anti ethnic Chinese violence broke out in west Java. Twenty-eight churches were attacked in several towns east and southeast of Jakarta. Mobs stoned windows, vandalized interiors, and in some cases attempted to burn the churches. Cars and other property belonging to the church and church members also were targeted for vandalism. Incidents such as these reflect religious tensions, as well as in some cases underlying socioeconomic and political tensions between poor Muslims and relatively more affluent ethnic Chinese Christians.

On July 24, a Protestant church was burned in the Depok area of south Jakarta. The church’s congregation was Batak, an ethnic group with origins in north Sumatra. Although the church was in close proximity to a police station, the mob spent hours demolishing it to its foundations with sledgehammers. Police have made no progress investigating the incident. In late November, a brawl in Ketapang, West Jakarta, between Muslim local residents and Christian security guards of a gambling den, who were mainly of Ambonese descent, escalated into a riot in which 14 were killed and 27 local churches and Christian schools were attacked, and in some cases destroyed. The anti-Christian violence in Jakarta prompted retaliatory anti-Muslim violence in Kupang, West Timor, in late November and early December. In Kupang (where Muslims are a minority), Christian mobs burned four mosques and several homes and shops belonging to Muslims. Five other mosques and a number of houses were damaged and dozens were injured. In both the Jakarta and Kupang incidents, interethnic tensions, as well as interreligious tensions, were factors contributing to the violence (U.S. Department of State 1999, Indonesia Country Report on Human Rights Practices for 1998, February 26 http://www.state.gov/www/global/human_rights/1998_hrp_report/indonesi.html – Attachment 14).

The two riots referred to above, in Tasikmalaya in December 1996 and Regasdenkolk in 1997, have been examined by Jacques Betrand in his 2004 book Nationalism and Ethnic Conflict in Indonesia. Of these events and the motivations behind them, he writes:

The targets … indicated a number of different grievances. Churches were attacked even though Christians were unrelated to the triggering events. But shops, movie theatres, and bank offices were also damaged, which suggested that the crowds might have been targeting the ethnic Chinese more than the Christians. Anti-Christian and anti-Chinese motives were very difficult to separate because the Chinese were overwhelmingly Christian and many Christians in Java were ethnic Chinese.

…In west Java’s Rengasdenklok, a rioting crowd damaged three churches but the main targets were shops and houses owned by ethnic Chinese…Between 1994 and 1996, the number of cases of violence between Christians and Muslims increased dramatically (Betrand, J. 2004, Nationalism and Ethnic Conflict in Indonesia, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom, pp. 101-102 – Attachment 15).

The most recent reference found in the sources to ethnic tension was expressed by members of the ethnic Chinese community themselves in Tangerang. The US Department of State report for the year 2004 describes a protest by ethnic Chinese in the city over the alleged sale of land used as a Chinese cemetery:

National/Racial/Ethnic Minorities

The Government officially promotes racial and ethnic tolerance. Ethnic Chinese accounted for approximately 3 percent of the population, by far the largest non indigenous minority group, and played a major role in the economy. Instances of discrimination and harassment of ethnic Chinese Indonesians declined compared with previous years. On April 14, then President Megawati publicly called on Immigration officials to stop asking ethnic Chinese citizens for a Republic of Indonesia Citizenship Certificate (SBKRI), a document not required of non-Chinese citizens; however, many ethnic Chinese citizens reported they were still frequently asked to show one. An attorney advocate for the rights of ethnic Chinese stated that more than 60 articles of law, regulation, or decree were in effect that discriminated against ethnic Chinese citizens. NGOs such as the Indonesia Anti- Discrimination Movement urged the Government to revoke these articles.

In September 2003, approximately 50 ethnic Chinese families in the West Java city of Tangerang protested in front of the Tangerang Council building over the alleged sale of land traditionally used as a Chinese cemetery. The families complained that the sale of the land for a commercial development prevented them from being able to bury their dead beside loved ones. City councillors agreed to review the case, but there were no developments by year’s end Indonesia (US Department of State 2005, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices – Indonesia, February 28 http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2004/41643.htm – Attachment 16).

The sources examined above indicate that the most prevalent ethnic and racial tension in the area surrounding Tangerang is that involving ethnic Chinese. Information dating up to June 2006 on the general situation of the ethnic Chinese in Indonesia is contained in a recent RRT Country Research Response. Question 2 of this response covers racially motivated attacks and riots against ethnic Chinese that have occurred in Indonesia and Jakarta since the major riots of May 1998 (RRT Country Research 2006, Research response IDN30246, 26 June – Attachment 17). For the ethnic and racial tensions across Indonesia, see an August 2006 Indonesia – Background Brief produced by the Department of Immigration & Multicultural Affairs’ Country Information and Protection Support Section (DIMA Country Information and Protection Support Section, 2006, Indonesia – Background Brief, August – Attachment 18).

List of Sources Consulted

Internet Sources: Government Information & Reports US Department of State website http://www.state.gov United Nations (UN) United Nations website http://www.un.org Non-Government Organisations Fellowship of Indonesian Christians in America (FICANET) website http://www.fica.org International News & Politics The Jakarta Post website http://www.thejakartapost.com/headlines.asp Asiaweek website http://www.pathfinder.com/asiaweek/ Time Magazine website http://www.time.com/ Search Engines Google search engine http://www.google.com.au/ University Sites Centre for International Development and Conflict Management, University of Maryland website http://www.cidcm.umd.edu/

Databases: FACTIVA (news database) BACIS (DIMA Country Information database) REFINFO (IRBDC (Canada) Country Information database) ISYS (RRT Country Research database, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, US Department of State Reports) RRT Library Catalogue

List of Attachments

1. ‘Maps and Geographic information – Indonesia’ January 2004, United Nations website http://www.un.org/Depts/Cartographic/map/profile/indonesi.pdf#search=%22map%2 0of%20indonesia%22 – Accessed 12 September.

2. ‘Tangerang’ (undated), Wikipedia website http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tangerang – Accessed 12 September 2006.

3. ‘Sacked officer questioned over Tangerang riot’ 1996, The Jakarta Post, 30 September. (FACTIVA)

4. 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 http://www.fica.org/hr/ChurchPersecution/nov516.pdf – Accessed 14 September 2006.

5. ‘Residents destroy, burn food stalls’ 1997, The Jakarta Post, 22 December. (FACTIVA)

6. ‘The May riots’ 1998, Inside Indonesia online edition, 29 May http://www.serve.com/inside/digest/dig63.htm – Accessed 22 June 2006.

7. ‘Residents attack LDII complex’ 2002, The Jakarta Post 30, October.

8. Nelles map, ‘Maps South East Asia – Java + Bali’ (undated). (RRT Library Sydney)

9. ‘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.

10. 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.

11. ‘Indonesian church damaged by 300 rioters’ 1997, Associated Press Newswires, 26 December. (FACTIVA)

12. 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.

13. U.S. Department of State 1998, Indonesia Report on Human Rights Practices for 1997, January 30 http://www.fas.org/irp/world/indonesia/indonesia-1997.htm.

14. U.S. Department of State 1999, Indonesia Country Report on Human Rights Practices for 1998, February 26 http://www.state.gov/www/global/human_rights/1998_hrp_report/indonesi.html.

15. Betrand, J. 2004, Nationalism and Ethnic Conflict in Indonesia, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom. (RRT Library Sydney) 16. US Department of State 2005, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices – Indonesia, February 28 http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2004/41643.htm.

17. RRT Country Research 2006, Research Response IDN30246, 26 June.

18. DIMA Country Information and Protection Support Section, 2006, Indonesia – Background Brief, August.