Jakarta (AsiaNews) - The Dayak tribal, native population of Indonesian Borneo, have promoted an "exceptional" and "unprecedented" protest in the history of the country, expressing feelings of hostility against members of the Islamic Defence Front (IDF). On 12 February in Palangkaraya, the provincial capital of Central Kalimantan, hundreds of locals staged a protest in the streets against the plans of IDF leaders - one of the most feared and powerful Muslim groups of the archipelago - to open a new downtown office.
The protesters displayed placards and banners at strategic points, then meet at Tjilikriwut airport, where four prominent leader of the Islamic Front had landed to launch the IDF centre.
So far no one had dared to openly challenge the power of the Islamic group - the subject of violence and stained by bad reputation - exclaiming loudly "Sorry, but you are not wanted here ". In the past, members have made attacks on religious minorities or ethnic groups, particularly the Chinese and the properties of their descendants. Tingkes Lukas, vice-president of the Central Kalimantan Dayak Tribal Council (Dad), explains that "the presence of the IDF has often caused tension and concern among members of the community." To prevent accidents, security officials have invited delegates from the Islamic movement to remain on board the aircraft; until the landing procedures of passengers completed, the aircraft left the airport and headed Tjilikriwut Banjarmasin, capital of the province South Kalimantan, where the four IDF leaders took a vehicle that brought them back to Jakarta. Among these there was also the secretary general Ahmad Sobri Lubis, while the historic leader Syiha (pictured) was absent due to his hospitalisation for illness.
The IDF leaders may present a complaint against what they call an intimidating attack suffered on Sunday. However, the authoritative Setara Institute - appreciated in the fight for human rights and religious freedom - has taken the defense of tribal Dayak supporting the battle against the Islamists: it is not, say the leaders of Setara, a case of violating freedom of expression and the rights of the IDF, but "clear opposition" totheir violent actions of the past "that can not be tolerated in a pluralistic society."
Meanwhile yesterday in Jakarta the trial began of Hisyam bin Ali Zein, better known as Umar Patek, among the authors of the Bali bombing in October 2002 that killed over 200 people and involved in attacks on Christian churches and buildings during the Christmas Eve of 2000 and in six other episodes that occurred at the turn of 2000 and 2002 against Catholic and Protestant places of worship. For years he was high on the international intelligence and U.S police. and Indonesian list of most-wanted; Mossad agents captured him in Abbottabad, Pakistan, in March 2011 (see AsiaNews 01/04/2011 Jakarta confirms the arrest in Pakistan of Umar Patek, mastermind of the Bali bombings), after a gun battle in the same area where the sheikh of terror Osama Bin Laden, the founder and leader of al Qaeda, was killed.
Borneo: "unprecedented" protest, Dayak stop Islamic radicals
The native group from province of Central Kalimantan blocked the opening of an office of the Front for Islamic Defence in Palangkaraya. Cause of "tension and concern." Human rights activists and civil society in support of the Dayak protest. In Jakarta case opens against the perpetrators of the Bali bombing and the attack on churches.
