A Few Poorly Organized Men Verhandelingen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land en Volkenkunde Edited by Rosemarijn Hoefte KITLV, Leiden Henk Schulte Nordholt KITLV, Leiden Editorial Board Michael Laffan Princeton University Adrian Vickers Sydney University Anna Tsing University of California Santa Cruz VOLUME 285 __________________________________ Power and Place in Southeast Asia Edited by Gerry van Klinken (KITLV) Edward Aspinall (Australian National University) VOLUME 3 The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/vki A Few Poorly Organized Men Interreligious Violence in Poso, Indonesia By Dave McRae LEIDEN • BOSTON 2013 Cover illustration: samgobin.nl. Four men stand trial in Jakarta in 2007 for violent attacks in Poso. Photo by Mohd. Adhe Bhakti. The realization of this publication was made possible by the support of KITLV (Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies). Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data McRae, Dave, 1977- A few poorly organized men : interreligious violence in Poso, Indonesia / by Dave McRae. pages cm. -- (Verhandelingen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land en Volkenkunde ; volume 285) (Power and place in Southeast Asia ; volume 3) Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 978-90-04-24483-2 (hardback : alk. paper) -- ISBN 978-90-04-25172-4 (e-book) 1. Ethnic conflict--Indonesia--Poso (Kabupaten) 2. Poso (Indonesia : Kabupaten)--Ethnic relations. 3. Ethnic conflict--Religious aspects. 4. Violence--Religious aspects. 5. Christianity and other religions-- Islam. 6. Islam--Relations--Christianity. I. Title. DS646.49.P67M47 2013 305.609598’44--dc23 2013009554 This publication has been typeset in the multilingual “Brill” typeface. With over 5,100 characters covering Latin, IPA, Greek, and Cyrillic, this typeface is especially suitable for use in the humanities. For more information, please see www.brill.com/brill-typeface. ISSN 1572-1892 ISBN 978-90-04-24483-2 (hardback) ISBN 978-90-04-25172-4 (e-book) Copyright 2013 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Global Oriental, Hotei Publishing, IDC Publishers and Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. This book is printed on acid-free paper. <UN> <UN> CONTENTS List of Illustrations ..................................................................................................vii Acknowledgements ..................................................................................................ix 1. Introduction ..........................................................................................................1 2. A Vulnerable District? ...................................................................................... 19 3. Political Violence .............................................................................................. 35 4. A Division of Labour in Killing ..................................................................... 69 5. Religious Violence...........................................................................................119 6. State Intervention ...........................................................................................157 7. Conclusion ........................................................................................................189 Bibliography ...........................................................................................................201 Index .........................................................................................................................209 <UN> <UN> <UN> <UN> LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Tables 1. Sites of large-scale violent conflict during Indonesia’s democratic transition .........................................................................................2 2. Phases of violence in the Poso conflict, 1998–2007 ..................................7 3. Percentages of religious composition in Poso district ............................ 26 Maps 1. Poso town (main streets only) ....................................................................... 46 2. Three fronts of violence .................................................................................. 92 Graphs 1. Annual deaths in Poso conflict, 2000–2011 ...........................................158 <UN> <UN> <UN> <UN> ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I owe thanks to a great many people without whom I would never have produced this book, or the Ph.D. dissertation on which it is based. First and foremost I must thank Diane Zhang, for her unending support, sharp insights and discerning eye. She did just about everything to make this book possible save writing it for me, so thankyou. I owe special thanks to my Ph.D. supervisor, Virginia Hooker. From the beginning to the end of the dissertation and indeed into her retirement, she read and commented perceptively on each and every draft with unfail- ing enthusiasm and encouragement. Special thanks also to Robert Cribb, who joined my supervisory panel for the writing up of the dissertation. His advice, comments and criticism were invaluable, and his numerous sug- gestions of additional interpretations and implications greatly enriched the dissertation and this book based on it. My other supervisor, Amrih Widodo, was a source of interesting ideas in the early stages of research. I’ve been incredibly fortunate to have so many people help me during my stays in Indonesia. Solahudin could not have done more—he made sure things went smoothly the first time I went to Palu, generously gave me the benefit of his unique insights over and over again, and his information and suggestions introduced me to many new aspects of my research. I feel I owe him a debt of kindness I can never hope to come close to repaying. In Central Sulawesi, LPSHAM introduced me to the conflict, gave me a place to stay and spent hour after hour introducing me to people and transporting me around Palu and Poso. Naming names runs the risk of forgetting someone, but thankyou Deddy, Alam, Marthen, Buyunk, Uken, Suaib, Idul, Hong, Ateng, Syawal, Ade, Brant, Intan, Walid, Rommy and the rest. Marthen in particular helped me negotiate the Palu bureaucracy and provided great help with early interviews. Buyunk also provided very helpful research assistance by attending trials in Palu in 2007 and collect- ing the documents from the proceedings. At YTM, Anto Sangaji has been a tremendous friend during this research. The insights, information, drafts of his work and introductions he has provided have greatly enriched my understanding of Poso. He worked tirelessly during the conflict to help end the violence and stand in the way of those trying to profit from others’ suffering, while at the same time being the conflict’s leading observer. Yogie has also been a great and very helpful friend and provided <UN> <UN> x acknowledgements intro ductions, information and insights without thought of his own time. Others too numerous to mention have given generously of their time and insights—Robert, Darwis, Iskandar, Jemy, Ochan, Darlis, Adhy, Budi and Lian among them. In Jakarta, Adhe has provided diligent and much appre- ciated research assistance in attending numerous trials and collecting the documents from proceedings. He also took the photograph that appears on the cover of the book. Thankyou also to all the people who read drafts, gave advice, or who generously provided information, introductions, drafts of articles or other help, including Ed Aspinall, Greg Fealy, Marcus Mietzner and Sidney Jones. Chris Wilson deserves special thanks for reading the entire book manuscript and most of my dissertation chapters, as well as generously sending me pre-publication drafts of his fine book on the North Maluku conflict. Thankyou also to my Ph.D. examiners and the two readers appo- inted by KITLV Press for their careful reading and helpful comments on my Ph.D. and book manuscript respectively. I also thank the series editors Gerry van Klinken and Ed Aspinall for their guidance, and every- one at KITLV Press and Brill. Finally thanks also to my colleagues at the International Crisis Group and the World Bank, each stimulating work- places where I enriched my understanding of violent conflict and where colleagues were generous with information. Despite the generous contributions of the individuals mentioned above, all shortcomings and errors in this book remain solely my responsibility. Parts of Chapter Four draw on material previously published in my 2007 Indonesia article: ‘Criminal justice and communal conflict; A case study of the trial of Fabianus Tibo, Dominggus da Silva and Marinus Riwu’. Indonesia 83: 79–117. Several paragraphs in Chapter Six also draw on mate- rial published in my 2010 article in the Conflict, Security and Development Journal: ‘Reintegration and localized conflict; Security impacts beyond influencing spoilers’, Conflict, Security and Development 10 (3):403–430. <UN> <UN> CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION For nine years from 1998 to 2007, Poso district in Central