ABSTRACT
Indonesia has embarked on perilous (re-)democratization, precipitated by the resignation of the country's long-time authoritarian ruler, Suharto, in May 1998. Competitive elections have been held; media licences have been liberalized; the army's visibility in politics has been curtailed; decentralization has taken place and human rights talk has flourished. These very same processes, however, have erected roadblocks in democratization's path: a politicization of ethno-religious and territorial-based identities; extensive regional—communal and separatist violence; and a concomitant crisis of more than one million internally displaced persons (IDPs).
