Violence in Indonesia

Violence has been on the top of the political agenda since the events leading to the fall of Suharto in 1998. In retrospect the violent clashes and - to a great extent anti-Chinese - riots in May 1998 were only a foretaste of the chaos in East Timor that followed the vote for independence on 30 August 1999. There, the Indonesian military and para-military "militias" created a climate where physical repression went hand in hand with the burning and destruction of buildings, mass rape, and murder. Reports on extensive violence in Maluku, Aceh, Irian Jaya, and other places raised many questions both inside and outside of Indonesia, contrasting as they do with the prevailing picture of Indonesia's armonious, conflict-avoiding culture. Parallel to the general media interest in the turmoil in Indonesia, violence in Indonesia also became a subject of intense scientific research.
This volume includes papers presented at the conference on "Conflicts and Violence in Indonesia" held at Humboldt University in Berlin. The conference was not intended to discuss global theories on violence or violence as part of human nature or other essentialising approaches. The focus was instead on different forms of violence, on local and national factors and circumstances which generate violence.
This volume brings together authors treating different aspects of violence with different approaches and interpretations of the topic. The outcome is a "thick descrition" of the violent events, of how violence has been and is produced, represented, imagined, counteracted, and how it should be punished and prevented.

contributors:
George Junus Aditjondro, Ariffadhillah, Nils Bubandt, Peter Carey, Freek Colombijn, Robert Cribb, Kees van Dijk, Urte Undine Frömming, Benny Giay, Paulo Gorjao, Tanja Hohe, Marianne Klute, Munir, Anna-Greta Hoadley, John T. Sidel, Mary Somers Heidhues, Ingrid Wessel, Georgia Wimhöfer.