Overview

Since Indonesia achieved independence in 1945 the Government in Jakarta has faced a constant struggle to keep the nation.A sprawling chain of about 17,000 islands off the southeastern coast of Asia . Established as a constitutional republic in 1945, the former Dutch colony has faced economic and political crises in recent years as it inches toward a society based on the rule of law. Suharto, the corrupt dictator who controlled Indonesia for more than 30 years, resigned in 1998, and Indonesia ’s military came under pressure to reduce its prominent role in domestic politics. Separatist movements and interreligious violence are prevalent in much of the country, which has the world’s fourth-largest population.

Much of Indonesia's regional violence is due to cultural or religious differences, pitting Muslims against Christians or one ethnic group against another. Some areas want nothing less than full independence from Jakarta, and their hopes were raised when East Timor became a separate country in May 2002.

Indonesia's first two presidents, Sukarno and Suharto, ruled this disparate group of islands with iron fists and support from the armed forces. Since the end of the Suharto regime, in 1998, reforms have led to a weakening of the previously all-powerful military. Some say this is a long-overdue development to appease those who want increased regional autonomy. But others say a weakened army has reduced Jakarta's ability to quell regional unrest.

Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim county, is a vast archipelago with porous maritime borders, a weak central government, separatist movements, corrupt officials, a floundering economy, and a loosely regulated financial system—all characteristics which make it fertile ground for terrorist groups. While Indonesia is known as a secular, tolerant society that practices a moderate form of Islam, radical Islamists have gained momentum. U.S. officials and terrorism experts worry about al-Qaeda using Indonesia as a base for a Southeast Asian front in its campaign

By the time of the Renaissance, the islands of Java and Sumatra had already enjoyed a 1,000-year heritage.

Islam arrived in Indonesia sometime during the 12th century and, through assimilation, supplanted Hinduism by the end of the 16th century in Java and Sumatra. Bali, however, remains overwhelmingly Hindu. In the eastern archipelago, both Christian and Islamic proselytizing took place in the 16th and 17th centuries, and, currently, there are large communities of both religions on these islands.

Beginning in 1602, the Dutch slowly established themselves as rulers of present-day Indonesia, exploiting the weakness of the small kingdoms that had replaced that of Majapahit. The only exception was East Timor, which remained under Portugal until 1975. During 300 years of Dutch rule, the Dutch developed the Netherlands East Indies into one of the world's richest colonial possessions.

During the first decade of the 20th century, an Indonesian independence movement began and expanded rapidly, particularly between the two World Wars. Its leaders came from a small group of young professionals and students, some of whom had been educated in the Netherlands. Many, including Indonesia's first president, Soekarno (1945-67), were imprisoned for political activities.

The Japanese occupied Indonesia for 3 years during World War II. On August 17, 1945, three days after the Japanese surrender to the Allies, a small group of Indonesians, led by Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta (not the 9/11 jijacker), proclaimed independence and established the Republic of Indonesia. They set up a provisional government and adopted a constitution to govern the republic until elections could be held and a new constitution written. Dutch efforts to reestablish complete control met strong resistance. After 4 years of warfare and negotiations, the Dutch transferred sovereignty to a federal Indonesian Government. In 1950, Indonesia became the 60th member of the United Nations.

The role of Islam in Indonesia became a divisive issue. Sukarno fought for a secular state based on five principles of the state philosophy--monotheism, humanitarianism, national unity, representative democracy by consensus, and social justice), while some Muslim groups preferred either an Islamic state or a constitution based on Shari'a, Islamic law.

Negotiations with the Dutch on the incorporation of the territory into Indonesia failed, and armed clashes broke out between Indonesian and Dutch troops in 1961. In August 1962, the two sides reached an agreement, and Indonesia assumed administrative responsibility for Irian Jaya. From 1959 to 1965, President Sukarno imposed an authoritarian regime under the label of "Guided Democracy." In March 1966, Sukarno had to transfer key political and military powers to General Suharto, who by that time had become head of the armed forces. In March 1967, the Provisional People's Consultative Assembly (MPRS) named General Suharto acting President. Sukarno ceased to be a political force and lived under virtual house arrest until his death in 1970.

President Suharto proclaimed a "New Order" in Indonesian politics and dramatically shifted foreign and domestic policies away from the course set in Soekarno's final years. The New Order established economic rehabilitation and development as its primary goals and pursued its policies through an administrative structure dominated by the military but with advice from Western-educated economic experts. Demonstrators, initially led by students, called for Suharto's resignation. Amidst widespread civil unrest, Suharto resigned on May 21, 1998, 3 months after the MPR had selected him for a seventh term. Suharto's hand-picked Vice President, B.J. Habibie, became Indonesia's third President.

In January 1999, Habibie and the Indonesian Government agreed to a referendum prrocess, with UN involvement, whereby the people of East Timor would be allowed to choose between autonomy and independence. Some 98% of registered voters cast their ballots, and 78.5% of the voters chose independence. Many persons were killed by Indonesian military forces, and military-backed militias, in a wave of violence and destruction after the announcement of the pro-independence vote. Led by peace negotiators from Australia, a ceasefire was declared and the independent state of Timor Leste emerged. Indonesia continues to face separatist demands and rebellions throughout the unwieldy island chain...

Aceh

Acehnese rebels and the Indonesian government signed a peace agreement in August 2005 aimed at ending nearly 26 years of a bitter separatist campaign, which has left nearly 15,000 people, mainly civilians, dead.

The peace deal was the result of six months of negotiations, after the two sides vowed to resolve the crisis in the wake of the December 2004 tsunami which killed more than 120,000 Acehnese.

Many people in Aceh trace their problems back to 1949, when the Dutch recognised Indonesian independence after four years of guerrilla warfare. Aceh became part of the Republic of Indonesia, despite not having been formally incorporated into the Dutch colonies. The Indonesian Government used armed troops to annex the region, and the military's heavy-handed tactics fuelled resentment among the local population.

In 1959, in an effort to appease the Acehnese, Jakarta gave the province a special status, which conferred a certain amount of autonomy, especially over religious and educational matters.

Aceh has a higher proportion of Muslims than other areas of Indonesia, and was allowed to introduce Sharia law in 2001. But despite concessions such as this, many Acehnese continued to resent Jakarta's rule. A major point of contention was the revenue from the province's rich oil and gas resources, most of which went straight to the central purse.

Another government move which angered Aceh was President Suharto's policy of transmigration, in which many Indonesians from overcrowded Java were settled in the province, increasing competition for jobs.

After the fall of Suharto in May 1998, General Wiranto - then the head of the armed forces - ended the military's control over Aceh and publicly apologised for human rights abuses in the province. But the low-level conflict with Gam continued, as the rebels refused to back down from their demands for a separate state.

Hopes for peace in Aceh were raised when the two sides signed an agreement in December 2002, which offered partial autonomy and free elections in exchange for rebel disarmament. The deal collapsed in May 2003, when both sides failed to fulfil their side of the bargain. The rebels refused to give up their weapons, and the Indonesian military did not withdraw to agreed defensive positions.

On 19 May, Indonesia declared martial law in the province, and launched an all-out military offensive against Gam rebels. A year after it was first imposed, the martial law was downgraded to a state of emergency.

In December 2004, Aceh was devastated by the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami.

Prompted by the urgency of Aceh's reconstruction needs, both sides resumed talks in January 2005. After four rounds of discussions, they came to an agreement, with both sides making key concessions. Under the deal, the rebels put to one side their demand for full independence, accepting instead a form of local self-government and the right eventually to establish a political party. In turn, the Indonesian government agreed to release political prisoners and offer farmland to former combatants.

Non-local Indonesian troops and police are leaving Aceh, and Gam rebels have disarmed, in a process overseen by a joint European Union and Asean monitoring team.

But all sides say there is still much work to be done, and analysts warn that there is still deep mistrust between Gam and the government.

Sulawesi

Central Sulawesi has been the scene of particularly brutal skirmishes between Christians and Muslims in recent years.

The town of Poso has acquired an unenviable reputation for some of the region's worst inter-religious violence. Hostilities first surfaced in late 1998, and carried on well into 2000. After a period of relative calm, they broke out again in late 2001.

Some analysts claim the violence began when fighting between Christian and Muslim communities in the Moluccan islands spilled over into Sulawesi. Others say it was a consequence of the influx of Muslim migrants from Java under President Suharto's transmigration programme - which reduced the Christian majority in Poso, and thus their powerful position. A drunken brawl between Christian and Muslim youths sparked the violence in Poso in December 1998 - leaving hundreds dead and thousands homeless. Unfounded claims that churches had been burned added to the chaotic atmosphere, and there were rumours of black magic being invoked, further inflaming this very traditional region.

By the time the violence subsided many months later, about 1,000 people had been killed and tens of thousands expelled from Poso and the surrounding villages. In late November 2001, the fighting flared up once again.

There were reports that the militant Islamic group Laskar Jihad was leading the Muslim side, and a study by the International Crisis Group suggested that another regional militant group, Jemaah Islamiah (JI), was also involved.

A paramilitary organisation calling itself the Red Force emerged to retaliate on behalf of the Christian community. Both groups were armed with bows and arrows, as well as homemade bombs and firearms.

In an attempt to bring about a long-term solution, the two sides met in December 2001 in government-sponsored peace talks.

The resultant declaration of peace, the Malino Accord, was signed by both sides, and produced a dramatic decline in the violence.

But systematic one-sided attacks - bombings and unexplained killings of mostly non-Muslim victims - have continued. In October 2003, masked gunmen killed 13 Christian villagers in the Morowali and Poso districts - proving that the inter-religious violence in Sulawesi is far from over.

Kalimantan

Kalimantan - the Indonesian part of the island of Borneo - has suffered from a number of outbreaks of inter-ethnic violence in recent years. In the late 1990s, long-running tensions between the indigenous Dayak people and migrants from the island of Madura finally spilled over in a series of violent attacks.

In 2001, hundreds of people were killed and tens of thousands of Madurese were forced to flee the island, pursued by enraged Dayaks. Tensions between the two communities had been rising for decades, in the wake of an influx of Madurese under the central government's transmigration programme.

Transmigration started at the beginning of 20th Century, but it was not until President Suharto came to power in 1966 that large numbers of people began to arrive in Kalimantan from other parts of Indonesia. By 2000, transmigrants made up 21% of the population in Central Kalimantan, and the demographics of the region had changed dramatically.

The Dayaks resented the increased competition for land and jobs, and many felt the newcomers were unfairly favoured at the expense of the indigenous community. New laws gave the government power to reallocate land for commercial logging, mining and the construction of plantations for palm-oil and paper production. Migrants - especially the Madurese - assumed control of much of these industries.

The Madurese were not the largest migrant group in Kalimantan, but they were the principal target of Dayak anger because of their greater wealth and the long-held stereotypes each group held about the other. Under President Suharto's regime, the military suppressed any attempts at violence between the two groups. But after his fall from power in 1998, the central government intervened much less in local matters, encouraging the Dayaks to take matters into their own hands.

Violence erupted in West Kalimantan in 1996-1997, and again in 1999. But the worst incidents happened in February 2001, when at least 500 Madurese were killed in the Central Kalimantan timber town of Sampit. Some of the dead bodies were decapitated in a ritual reminiscent of the Dayak's head-hunting past.

More than 100,000 Madurese were forced to flee the area to escape the massacre. The violence spread out into other areas of the province, and by April 2001 almost the entire Madurese community had left Central Kalimantan.

The Moluccas

Indonesians living in the Moluccas are fearful of a repeat of the violence which blighted the island chain before a peace deal was struck in 2002.

In the three years before the peace accord, an estimated 5,000 people were killed and 500,000 displaced to other areas of Indonesia. It was not always this way though. For many years, Christian and Muslim communities lived peacefully together through traditional village alliances. But resentments had probably been simmering beneath the surface for some time before violence erupted in 1999.

Muslims believed that Christians were given the best jobs in the civil service - a legacy, perhaps, of the fact that under Dutch colonial rule, Christians were offered better education.

Christians feared that an influx of Muslims from other parts of Indonesia, as part of a nationwide transmigration project, would make them a vulnerable minority.

These differences were suppressed under the authoritarian rule of former President Suharto. But after his downfall in 1998, the fault lines were exposed. In January 1999, violence finally erupted - sparked by a minor traffic accident on the island of Ambon. The conflict quickly spread to the surrounding islands, and thousands of people were killed in the ensuing mayhem. Outside agents - including Islamic militant groups such as Laskar Jihad, as well as armed forces from Jakarta - exacerbated the carnage still further.

The violence continued throughout 2000, but died down by mid-2001.

A peace accord was signed in February 2002, and both sides then set about rebuilding their lives and restoring order. For a while it seemed that the peace deal was working. But in April 2004, more than 40 people died in clashes sparked by an illegal rally by a Christian gang in Ambon.

With the renewal of sporadic acts of violence, observers have expressed skepticism about the peace deal's long-term success.

Papua

Papua, formerly known as Irian Jaya, has been dogged by secessionist violence ever since Dutch colonial rule formally ended in 1962.

Many Papuans saw the Dutch departure as a chance for complete independence. But within a year, forces from Jakarta had annexed the region and claimed it as part of Indonesia.

A low-level guerrilla organisation called the Free Papua Movement has been fighting a secessionist battle ever since. Despite a heavy Indonesian military presence, attacks and skirmishes have occurred throughout the last four decades, killing thousands of Papuans.The situation has been exacerbated by tensions within the Papuan community.

Locals - who are mainly Christians or Animists of Melanesian origin - have clashed with Muslims who moved to the region as part of the government's transmigration programme. The Dutch colonised Papua in 1828, but unlike the rest of Indonesia, they did not relinquish control of the province until the 1960s. Instead, on 1 December 1961, they agreed to grant Papuan self-rule.

When the Dutch left, they handed Papua over to the United Nations and then to Jakarta, in a transfer agreement which stipulated that Papuans would be able to decide within six years whether to accept incorporation into Indonesia.

This opportunity came and went - and many Papuans, as well as human rights groups, have questioned why the region has still not been allowed a vote for independence.

From the time Jakarta first annexed the province, there have been sporadic clashes between independence supporters and security forces. When President Suharto left office in 1998, advocates of Papuan separatism renewed their call for independence.

Abdurrahman Wahid came to power in October 1999 and attempted to de-fuse the situation by publicly announcing that the government should accept the blame for some of the region's difficulties.

But Papuans still had many grievances against Jakarta. A major complaint was that much of the revenue from the region's extensive mineral and oil resources was going to central government coffers, rather than benefiting local people.

In 2001 Jakarta tried again to appease the Papuans, by granting them greater powers to manage their own affairs. The region was allowed to keep up to 80% of the profits from its sale of minerals and agricultural produce, and was also allowed to change its name from Irian Jaya to the locally-preferred name of Papua.

But despite these concessions, the situation remains volatile.

Jemaah Islamiyah (JI)

Jemaah Islamiya (JI) is a militant Islamist group active in Southeast Asian, seeking to establish a pan-Islamic state across much of the region. JI is suspected to have 500-2000 activists. Recent arrests of key leaders has dealt a serious, if not fatal blow to the organization.

The group has its roots in Darul Islam, a violent radical movement that advocated the establishment of Islamic law in Indonesia. Abu Bakar Bashir, an Indonesian of Yemeni descent, is JI's spiritual leader—and, some speculate, an operational leader as well. He recruited volunteers to fight in the anti-Soviet Muslim brigades in Afghanistan and sought funding from Saudi Arabia. In March 2005, he was acquitted of charges that he participated in the 2003 attacks in Jakarta, but was found guilty of conspiracy for the 2002 Bali bombings and sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison, which the U.S. and Australian governments criticized as too lenient.

Nurjaman Riduan Ismuddin, better known as “Hambali”, was arrested in Thailand August 2003. Until his arrest in 2003, Hambali played the most important leadership role in Jemaah Islamiyah, according to U.S. and Asian intelligence officials. He was the group’s operational chief, they say, and was closely involved in several terrorist plots. U.S. officials announced August 14, 2003, that he was arrested by Thai authorities in Ayutthaya, about sixty miles north of Bangkok, and handed over to the CIA.

The U.S. State Department says Hambali was the head of Jemaah Islamiyah’s regional shura, its policymaking body, and suspected of being al-Qaeda’s operations director for East Asia. The State Department in January 2003 froze Hambali’s assets and the assets of another suspected terrorist, Mohamad Iqbal Abdurraham, also known as Abu Jibril. The department said that, until his arrest in Malaysia in June 2001, Abu Jibril was “Jemaah Islamiyah’s primary recruiter and second-in-command.”

Terrorist Attacks:

October 1, 2005, suicide bombings in Bali; killed at least 19 people.
September 2004 suicide car bombing outside the Australian Embassy in Jakarta; killed 3 people, injured more than 100.
August 2003 car bombing of the Marriott Hotel in Jakarta; killed 12 people.
October 2002 bombing of a nightclub on island of Bali; killed 202 people, mostly Australian tourists.
December 2000 wave of church bombings in Indonesia; killed 18 people.
December 2000 series of bombings in Manila; killed 22 people.
1995 plot to bomb eleven U.S. commercial airliners in Asia that, the State Department says, Hambali helped plan.

The State Department says Hambali helped plan these attacks and also hosted two of the September 11th hijackers. Fathur Rahman al-Ghozi, a Bashir follower, reportedly confessed to a role in the bombings. In April 2002, al-Ghozi was convicted in the Philippines on unrelated charges of possessing explosives. Jemaah Islamiyah has been linked to terrorist plots by an alleged al-Qaeda operative recently captured in Indonesia and turned over to the CIA.

Following the September 11, 2001, attacks, the Indonesian government spent months resisting pressure to detain alleged JI leaders, questioning whether the group even existed. Indonesia also resisted U.S. and Asian government requests to arrest Hambali, then JI’s suspected operations leader, and he eventually went underground before his arrest in Thailand.

Some Indonesian officials said that targeting the extremist group could generate public sympathy for it and help build a following for Bashir and JI in the otherwise largely moderate Muslim country. The government was also worried about appearing to cave in to U.S. demands and so antagonize Islamic political parties. Following the Bali bombing, however, Indonesia changed its tune, passing new antiterrorism legislation and ordering Bashir’s arrest.

U.S. officials also worry about Laskar Jihad, a violent group aiming to eliminate Christians from the Moluccas and Sulawesi Island and establish an Islamist state. After the October 2002 Bali bombing, Laskar Jihad announced it had disbanded. Its leader, Jaffar Umar Thalib, says he met Osama bin Laden while fighting in the Islamist brigades opposed to the 1979-89 Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, but says he’s rejected al-Qaeda’s offers of funding. Some experts say that Laskar Jihad’s contacts with al-Qaeda are more extensive than Thalib admits.

Sources:
BBC News Special Reports
US Department of State Background Notes on Indonesia (05/06)

Related Resources:

Indonesia Human Rights Network
http://www.indonesianetwork.org/

Indonesian Regional Information and Promotion
http://www.infoproda.com/

Inside Indonesia
http://www.insideindonesia.org/

International Crisis Group
http://www.crisisweb.org/

The Jakarta Post
http://www.thejakartapost.com/

Maluku News Portal
http://www.malra.org/

Norwegian Refugee Council's reports on internally displaced people in Indonesia and East Timor
http://www.db.idpproject.org/Sites/idpSurvey.nsf/wCountries/Indonesia+&+East+Timor

Prevent Conflict.org: Building Human security in Indonesia
http://www.preventconflict.org/portal/main/

The SMERU Research Institute
http://www.smeru.or.id/

Social Sciences for the Study of Conflict in Indonesia
http://www.communalconflict.com/

TAPOL, the Indonesia Human Rights Campaign
http://tapol.gn.apc.org/

United Nations Support Facility for Indonesian Recovery
http://www.unsfir.or.id/

Citations

M. Adriana Sri Adhiati and Armin Bobsien (ed.), Indonesia's Transmigration Programme - An Update, (July 2001).
http://dte.gn.apc.org/ctrans.htm