Indonesia: massacres, decapitation, mutilation

Another 118 people have been slaughtered in Indonesia, as this vast country enters the death-throes of its former identity and tries to come to terms with the new situation: tens of independence movements and inter-ethnic conflicts. This time, 118 people were decapitated and their bodies were mutilated on the island of Borneo, in the conflict between the indigenous Dayak and the population of Madura, seen by the Dayak as being invaders and not respecting local culture. Hacking people to death with machetes speaks for itself, but the underlying issue is the future integrity of Indonesia, a collection of islands rich in minerals, but rent by cultural and ethnic factions which are deeply divided by years of superficial cosmetic surgery, trying to disguise the real underlying sociological issues. Like any volcano, when the pressure becomes superior to the forces of prevention, the explosion is guaranteed. How many more of these situations are to appear in Indonesia, a country much more divided than was previously thought. East Timor was only the beginning of a process which could witness the break-up of this Republic into tens of island-states.

TIMOTHY BANCROFT-HINCHEY PRAVDA.RU LISBON