ABSTRACT
Between 1950 and 1990, Borneo resembled a cauldron of violence that boiled over, claiming lives, inflicting hardships, and causing fear and panic, anguish and distress. Neither were there massacres of ethnic Chinese, like the slaughters in Makassar, Medan, and on Lombok Island. While the GESTAPU Affair unfolded and thereafter the Indonesian Massacres were unleased across Java (Central and East), Bali, Sumatra, Makassar, Lombok, and other corners of the archipelago, West Kalimantan appeared to be in status quo until mid-1967. The GESTAPU Affair and its horrific aftermath, the Indonesian Massacre, witnessed the wholesale slaughter of members of the PKI, its supporters and sympathizers throughout the archipelago. In line with its attempt to incite anti-Chinese hatred among Dayaks, villagers that were massacred by the military allegedly to be involved with the insurgents were blamed on ‘Chinese PGRS’ as the perpetrators.
